I've been confused in class many times. But usually it's because I didn't understand what my mwalimu was saying. Today, I understood his words, just not why he was saying them.
In Swahili, there is a different verb for carrying things on your head, carrying things on your back, lifiting things to carry, taking little things, taking things out, taking things away, bringing things and just carrying in general. And there's different verbs for actively carrying and referring to someone carrying. I said I was carrying a bag and then used the same verb to say my baba was carrying a bag - It took about 20 minutes of my teacher explaining why that was ridiculous before I just pretended to understand and we moved on.
I found this really unusual for Swahili, because so many English words are covered by one Swahili word. 'Kama' can mean If, Like or Such as; 'Juu' can mean Over, Above, On, Top, or Up; 'Nafasi' can mean Time, Space, Chance, or Vacancy, etc.
So the fact that carrying is so specifically defined (and confusing) was initially strange. Maybe this was how they distinguished locals from foreigners when paying for tickets? (For movies, ferries, everything, foreigners pay at least double and up to 5 times as much as locals.) But when I thought about, I realized these different 'carry' verbs must be for practicality's sake. Every aspect of life here involves some carrying. Water doesn't just flow out of the taps in the bathroom (if you even have a bathroom); meat and fruit don't just go from the supermarket cart to your car to your fridge; your baby doesn't ride along happily in their stroller, your fancy executive-style all-in-one laptop case doesn't just swivel, roll out of the elevator and down the marble ramp from your air-conditioned corporate oasis (the SunLife building at Mansfield/Rene-Levesque where my mentor works - go there): Nope, you carry your water, your fresh octopus, your child and your unsold goods however you can manage. With your head, your back, your shoulders, your arms and your pockets. And I guess describing each of these ways would be too time consuming since you have to run home to eat before prayers.
I found this really unusual for Swahili, because so many English words are covered by one Swahili word. 'Kama' can mean If, Like or Such as; 'Juu' can mean Over, Above, On, Top, or Up; 'Nafasi' can mean Time, Space, Chance, or Vacancy, etc.
So the fact that carrying is so specifically defined (and confusing) was initially strange. Maybe this was how they distinguished locals from foreigners when paying for tickets? (For movies, ferries, everything, foreigners pay at least double and up to 5 times as much as locals.) But when I thought about, I realized these different 'carry' verbs must be for practicality's sake. Every aspect of life here involves some carrying. Water doesn't just flow out of the taps in the bathroom (if you even have a bathroom); meat and fruit don't just go from the supermarket cart to your car to your fridge; your baby doesn't ride along happily in their stroller, your fancy executive-style all-in-one laptop case doesn't just swivel, roll out of the elevator and down the marble ramp from your air-conditioned corporate oasis (the SunLife building at Mansfield/Rene-Levesque where my mentor works - go there): Nope, you carry your water, your fresh octopus, your child and your unsold goods however you can manage. With your head, your back, your shoulders, your arms and your pockets. And I guess describing each of these ways would be too time consuming since you have to run home to eat before prayers.
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