Learn how to communicate when using public transport
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Louise: Hi everyone, and welcome back to SwahiliPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 16 - Don't take a Kenyan Bus During Rush Hour! Louise here. |
| Medina: Jambo. I'm Medina. |
| Louise: In this lesson, you'll learn words and phrases for when you’re using public transportation in Swahili. The conversation takes place inside a public bus. |
| Medina: The conversation is between the bus conductor, who is collecting bus fare, and a passenger. |
| Louise: The speakers don't know each other, so they'll be using formal Swahili. Now let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Mary: Nauli ya mpaka Malindi ni pesa ngapi? |
| Makanga: Malipo ni Shilingi mia moja ya Kenya. |
| Mary: Je, kutoka hapa hadi Malindi ni umbali upi? |
| Makanga: Karibu kilomita thelathini. |
| Mary: Sawa, shika nauli na unipe baki la pesa yangu. |
| Louise: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Mary: Nauli ya mpaka Malindi ni pesa ngapi? |
| Makanga: Malipo ni Shilingi mia moja ya Kenya. |
| Mary: Je, kutoka hapa hadi Malindi ni umbali upi? |
| Makanga: Karibu kilomita thelathini. |
| Mary: Sawa, shika nauli na unipe baki la pesa yangu. |
| Louise: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Mary: How much is the fare to Malindi? |
| Conductor: It’s 100 Kenyan shillings. |
| Mary: How far is Malindi from here? |
| Conductor: About 30 kilometers. |
| Mary: Here’s the bus fare, please hand me my change. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Louise: It seems like public transportation is pretty common for traveling from one town to another in Kenya. What kinds of public transportation do Kenyan people use? |
| Medina: Well, you can easily find matatus. This word refers to both buses and minibuses. Most matatus have a yellow stripe on the side, so you can easily spot them on the street. |
| Louise: I see. But listeners, please note that the bus fare may change from time to time depending on the weather, what time you’re traveling, and even the number of passengers at the bus terminal! |
| Medina: That’s right. The prices are not constant. When it's raining, public transport vehicles may even double the fare! |
| Louise: Also, the same high charges apply during rush hour when people travel to and from their offices and homes. |
| Medina: Right. When there are msongamano wa magari, or "traffic jams" in English, bus fares tend to be high because the number of people waiting for matatus increases by the minute. |
| Louise: So make sure to check the fare before you get on a bus in Kenya, because you may end up paying less than you think, or maybe much more! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Louise: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Medina: nauli [natural native speed] |
| Louise: bus fare |
| Medina: nauli[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: nauli [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: pesa ngapi [natural native speed] |
| Louise: how much |
| Medina: pesa ngapi[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: pesa ngapi [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: malipo [natural native speed] |
| Louise: charges (as in for payment) |
| Medina: malipo[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: malipo [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: shilingi ya Kenya [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Kenyan shillings, the national currency |
| Medina: shilingi ya Kenya[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: shilingi ya Kenya [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: baki la pesa [natural native speed] |
| Louise: cash balance |
| Medina: baki la pesa[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: baki la pesa [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: umbali [natural native speed] |
| Louise: distance |
| Medina: umbali[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: umbali [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: kilomita [natural native speed] |
| Louise: kilometer |
| Medina: kilomita[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: kilomita [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: mia moja [natural native speed] |
| Louise: one hundred |
| Medina: mia moja[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: mia moja [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Louise: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Medina: nauli |
| Louise: meaning "fare." |
| Medina: Nauli is usually used together with malipo and pesa. |
| Louise: These words mean "charges" and "money" respectively. |
| Medina: So listeners, remember them together with nauli. |
| Louise: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Medina: umbali |
| Louise: meaning "distance." Speaking of distance, Medina, can you tell us how Kenyans measure distance? |
| Medina: Sure. We use kilomita.. |
| Louise: .. meaning "kilometers," |
| Medina: or maili, |
| Louise: meaning "miles." They sound similar to their English equivalents, so they should be easy to remember. Can you give us an example using distance? |
| Medina: For example, in the dialogue we had kutoka hapa hadi Malindi ni umbali ngapi? |
| Louise: which means "How far is Malindi from here?" or literally “What’s the distance from here to Malindi?” |
| Medina: At the end of this sentence we have ni umbali ngapi, which literally means “What distance.” |
| Louise: This phrase is very useful when you’re talking about distances or fare. We’ll talk more about it in the lesson focus, so keep listening. What's the next word? |
| Medina: It’s malipo |
| Louise: And it means "charges." This word applies anywhere there is an exchange of cash for a product or service. |
| Medina: That’s right. Malipo can be used to discuss payment for any kind of business. |
| Louise: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Medina: Sure. In the dialogue, we had Malipo ni Shilingi mia moja ya Kenya. |
| Louise: .. which means "It’s 100 Kenyan shillings," or literally, “the charge is 100 Kenyan shillings.” It’s usually put at the beginning of a sentence. Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Louise: In this lesson, you'll learn words and phrases for using public transportation in Swahili. When you're talking to the conductor on a Kenyan bus, you need to know how to ask about transportation fares in Swahili. |
| Medina: Nauli is the word you would use to refer to the bus fare. |
| Louise: And we also covered the word meaning “distance” in Swahili, which is.. |
| Medina: umbali. You’ll need to memorize this word when you’re about to get on public transportation in Kenya. |
| Louise: By using these words, you can make some phrases to use when you’re taking public transportation in Kenya. But to have a conversation, you should also be familiar with certain Swahili words for numbers so that you’ll be able to understand the driver’s responses. Let’s cover them one by one. |
| Medina: First, when you want to ask how much the bus fare is, you need to say Nauli ni ngapi? |
| Louise: That simply means “how much?” But what if I want to make a question specifically about my destination saying, for example, “How much is the fare to Malindi?” |
| Medina: In that case, you can use the expression Nauli ya mpaka Malindi ni pesa ngapi? If you have a different destination, just change the noun Malindi to your destination. Make sure you also change the word ni depending on the noun. |
| Louise: On a bus, you might also want to ask the distance between where you are and your destination. In that case, you can use this structure. First say.. |
| Median: kutoka |
| Louise: meaning “from,” and where you are. If you want to say “from here” it will be.. |
| Medina: kutoka hapa. Hapa is the word meaning “here.” |
| Louise: Or you can put a place’s name, like the city Nairobi. Then, you can say.. |
| Medina: hadi |
| Louise: meaning “to” and your destination. In the dialogue, the passenger wanted to know the distance from here to Malindi, so she said.. |
| Medina: kutoka hapa hadi Malindi |
| Louise: “from here to Malindi.” |
| Medina: Then, you need to use the phrase ni umbali ngapi? which means “What’s the distance?” |
| Louise: Or if you want to know how much you have pay from here to Malindi, you can use the phrase.. |
| Medina: nitalipa nauli ya pesa ngapi? |
| Louise: This literally means “I will pay how much?” So all together, “How much do I have to pay from here to Malindi?” is..? |
| Medina: Kutoka hapa hadi Malindi ni pesa ngapi. Kutoka hapa hadi Malindi ni pesa ngapi. |
| Louise: Okay. And listeners, you’ll need to know Swahili numbers to understand how much it costs. We made a table showing the list of numbers in Swahili in our PDF lesson notes, so make sure to check them out. |
Outro |
| Louise: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Medina: Mpaka wakati mwingine, Kwaheri ya kuonana! |
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