Language

Now that things have settled into a sort of routine, I wanted to give some thoughts on the languages of Kenya.  Officially, the teaching language is English, which is why I thought I could come here and teach.  And in fact, English IS the language spoken in the classroom.  What is interesting, however, is that English is NEVER heard on the street.  There are many "native" languages spoken here, and Swahili is spoken all over.  What this means, I think, is that English as a language, though still the language of instruction, has probably gotten worse over the past twenty years, rather than improved.  At Evan's school, for instance, the language of instruction is also English, but according to Evan the teachers move back and forth between English and Swahili, which probably doesn't do much to improve the English capabilities of the students.

Please note that I'm NOT saying they should be speaking English rather than local languages.  What I AM saying is the there is a pretense that English is part of the larger culture, but in fact, in terms of speaking on the street, there is probably much less English spoken than there was twenty or thirty years ago.  And some of you may be wondering why I didn't learn Swahili before we came.  Well, I bought the CDs, but never listened to them.  And to be blunt, given how rapid fire the language is, I doubt they would have helped much.

Finally, the little school children have to learn English, and it is interesting that they have all learned by heart one little piece of dialog:  "Hello, how are you?"  "I am fine, how are you?"  "I am fine."  We are part of that conversation all day long.  It must be something they learn early on, that that is how Americans and Europeans greet each other.  This is a strange and interesting place!