Learn how to apologize in Swahili
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Hello everyone, and welcome back to SwahiliPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, season 1, lesson 5 - Offering Your Swahili Apologies. I’m Brandon. |
| Medina: Jambo, and I am Medina. |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to apologize in Swahili. |
| Medina: The conversation takes place at the airport. |
| Brandon: The speakers are strangers, so they will be using formal language. Okay, Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Juma: Tafadhali naomba ujue umenikanyaga. |
| Musa: Oh..mimi? |
| Juma: Ndio. |
| Musa: Pole sana. |
| Brandon: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Juma: Tafadhali naomba ujue umenikanyaga. |
| Musa: Oh..mimi? |
| Juma: Ndio. |
| Musa: Pole sana. |
| Brandon: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Juma: Tafadhali naomba ujue umenikanyaga. |
| Brandon: Excuse me, you stepped on me! |
| Musa: Oh..mimi? |
| Brandon: Ohh me? |
| Juma: Ndio. |
| Brandon: Yes. |
| Musa: Pole sana. |
| Brandon: I am so sorry. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: Medina, when you’re saying sorry in Swahili, what gestures do you make? |
| Medina: It depends on how close you are to the other person. If they know the other person well, Kenyans will pat each other on the back as they apologize. If they don’t know them, they don’t make any gestures, but make sure their tone indicates their apology correctly. |
| Brandon: I see. And I’ve heard that kneeling is one of the gestures that Kenyans use to show how sorry they are. |
| Medina: That’s right. Sometimes we do that for big mistakes. After you show that you’re sorry, in many cases, Kenyans will accept it and forgive you. In serious cases where a young person abuses an elderly person, the younger person is likely to be kicked out of that community. |
| Brandon: What happens if the younger person shows deep apologies? |
| Medina: Well, sometimes the elder will ask for a cow, goats or land. If the person who abused the elder gives those, then the elder will forgive the person. |
| Brandon: That’s another interesting custom! Okay, onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Vocabulary and Phrases |
| Brandon: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Medina: kanyanga [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to step on |
| Medina: kanyanga [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: kanyanga [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Medina: tafadhali [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: please |
| Medina: tafadhali [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: tafadhali [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Medina: naomba [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: I am requesting |
| Medina: naomba [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: naomba [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Medina: ndio [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: yes |
| Medina: ndio [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: ndio [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Medina: pole sana [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: very sorry |
| Medina: pole sana [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: pole sana [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Medina: mimi [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: me |
| Medina: mimi [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: mimi [natural native speed] |
| And Last: |
| Medina: wewe [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: you |
| Medina: wewe [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: wewe [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Medina: The first word is tafadhali |
| Brandon: It means “Please.” Can you give us an example? |
| Medina: Tafadhali nisamehe. |
| Brandon It means “Please forgive me.” |
| Medina: Here, we used Tafadhali meaning “Please” before the verb nisamehe which means “forgive me.” |
| Brandon: Okay, what’s the next word? |
| Medina: Next we have “Naomba”. This literally means “I’m praying.” When you want to ask a favor in Swahili, you can use this expression - Tafadhali naomba. |
| Brandon: It means “Please, I’m requesting” but can be used to get someone’s attention. |
| Medina: That’s right. Just say this phrase Tafadhali naomba when you need to get someone’s attention when you need help. |
| Brandon: That’s good to know. Now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to apologize in Swahili. Medina, how do you say “I’m sorry”? |
| Medina: It’s pole sana. (SLOW) Pole sana. “Pole” is an adjective meaning “sorry” and sana is the word for “very much.” It’s an adverb you use for emphasis. |
| Brandon: And when you want to say “I’m sorry” to more than one person, you can say.. |
| Medina: Poleni. Like with the other expressions that we learned in the previous lesson, you can simply add ni at the end. Once more, poleni. |
| Brandon: And we have another expression to say “I’m sorry” right? |
| Medina: Yes, we have nisamehe. (SLOW) nisamehe |
| Brandon: Are these two expressions easily replaceable? |
| Medina: Yes, they are. And when you’ve made a really big mistake, you can say Tafadhali naomba unisamehe. |
| Brandon: Wow, that’s a long expression. Can you break it down? |
| Medina: Sure. Tafadhali means “Please”, naomba means “I’m requesting” and nisamehe means “forgive me”. So it means something like “Please, I beg you to forgive me” |
| Brandon: Can you say it again, slowly? |
| Medina: Sure. (Slow) Tafadhali naomba unisamehe. / Tafadhali naomba unisamehe. |
| MARKETING PIECE |
| Medina: Listeners, do you know the powerful secret behind rapid progress? |
| Brandon: Using the entire system. |
| Medina: Lesson notes are an important part of this system. |
| Brandon: They include a transcript and translation of the conversation... |
| Medina: ...key lesson vocabulary... |
| Brandon: and detailed grammar explanations. |
| Medina: Lesson notes accompany every audio or video lesson. |
| Brandon: Use them on the site or mobile device or print them out. |
| Medina: Using the lesson notes with audio and video media, will rapidly increase your learning speed. |
| Brandon: Go to SwahiliPod101.com, and download the lesson notes for this lesson right now. |
Outro |
| Brandon: Well, that’s all for this lesson. |
| Medina: Make sure you check the lessons notes, and leave us a comment. |
| Brandon: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. Bye! |
| Medina: Kwaheri ya kuonana. |
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