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| INTRODUCTION |
| John: Hi everyone, and welcome back to SwahiliPod101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 2 - Describing Your Swahili Teacher. John Here. |
| Medina: Hamjambo, I'm Medina. |
| John: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to describe a person's looks and possessions. The conversation takes place in a classroom. |
| Medina: It's between Maria and Ali. |
| John: The speakers are classmates, so they will use informal Swahili. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Maria: Je, umemuona yule mwalimu mgeni? |
| Ali: Ndio, nimemuona leo. Ako na nywele ndefu na ni mweupe pe pe pe. |
| Maria: Sawa. Nilidhani humjui nikuonyeshe. Ndiye yule. |
| Ali: Wataka kusema ni yeye yule? Leo amevaa kitambaa cha rangi ya majano kichwani. |
| Maria: Ndio. Ni yeye ameambatanisha marangi ya mavazi. |
| Ali: Niliona gari lake ni la aina ya Marcedes. |
| Maria: Kwa hivyo anaonekana ni tajiri. |
| Ali: Ndio. Tunatumai atatufunza vyema. |
| Maria: Sawa. |
| John: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Maria: Je, umemuona yule mwalimu mgeni? |
| Ali: Ndio, nimemuona leo. Ako na nywele ndefu na ni mweupe pe pe pe. |
| Maria: Sawa. Nilidhani humjui nikuonyeshe. Ndiye yule. |
| Ali: Wataka kusema ni yeye yule? Leo amevaa kitambaa cha rangi ya majano kichwani. |
| Maria: Ndio. Ni yeye ameambatanisha marangi ya mavazi. |
| Ali: Niliona gari lake ni la aina ya Marcedes. |
| Maria: Kwa hivyo anaonekana ni tajiri. |
| Ali: Ndio. Tunatumai atatufunza vyema. |
| Maria: Sawa. |
| John: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Maria: Have you seen the new teacher? |
| Ali: Yes, I have seen her today. She has long hair and she is light skinned. |
| Maria: Okay, I thought you didn't know her so I will point her out to you. There she is. |
| Ali: You want to say she is the one? Today, she has worn a yellow scarf on her head. |
| Maria: Yes, she is the one who has matching clothes. |
| Ali: I saw that her car was a Mercedes. |
| Maria: So, it seems she is rich. |
| Ali: Yes, we hope she teaches us well. |
| Maria: Okay. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| John: Medina, in the dialogue they mentioned the teacher’s skin color. Are Kenyan beauty standards different than other countries? |
| Medina: Somehow they are. For example, most people in Kenya, especially in the rural areas, assess people's quality of life by how fat they look. Those who are fat seem healthy and rich and those who are not plump seem not so well-off. |
| John: So, being slim is not considered good. |
| Medina: Right. As for the skin color, dark-skinned people are considered healthier because their skin is better able to tolerate sun burns while the lighter skinned people are generally considered beautiful or handsome. |
| John: Ok, is there any particular expression we can learn related to this topic? |
| Medina: Yes, for example, mweupe pe pe pe |
| John: meaning "Extremely light-skinned." Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Medina: mgeni [natural native speed] |
| John: new |
| Medina: mgeni[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: mgeni [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Medina: nywele [natural native speed] |
| John: hair |
| Medina: nywele[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: nywele [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Medina: dhani [natural native speed] |
| John: to think |
| Medina: dhani[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: dhani [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Medina: umefunga [natural native speed] |
| John: to wear, to tie |
| Medina: umefunga [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: umefunga [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Medina: ambatanisha [natural native speed] |
| John: to match |
| Medina: ambatanisha[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: ambatanisha [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Medina: aina [natural native speed] |
| John: type |
| Medina: aina[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: aina [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Medina: funza [natural native speed] |
| John: to teach |
| Medina: funza[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: funza [natural native speed] |
| John: And last.. |
| Medina: tajiri [natural native speed] |
| John: rich |
| Medina: tajiri[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: tajiri [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| John: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Medina: ume- |
| John: meaning "you have" |
| Medina: Ume is a prefix that is usually attached to a Swahili verb. |
| John: You use this prefix to refer to something that has happened recently, especially when asking a question to one person or a single group. |
| Medina: Apart from being used in a question sentence structure, you can also use it to show confirmation. |
| John: Can you give us some examples using this word? |
| Medina: Sure. For example, you can say.. Naona umetazama sinema. |
| John: Meaning "I can see that you have watched the movie." |
| Medina: Je, umefikisha mzigo nyumbani? |
| John: ..which means "Have you taken the luggage home?" Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Medina: aina ya |
| John: meaning "type of." You can use this phrase to describe something. |
| Medina: Right, for example when referring to different forms of the existence of something. It can be used in both formal and informal situations. |
| John: What’s an example using this word? |
| Medina: For example, you can say.. Kuna aina nyingi za vitambaa za nguo. |
| John: .. which means "There are different types of materials for clothes." |
| Medina: In some cases, in place of aina ya, meaning "type of," vitengo, meaning "classification," may be used. |
| John: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Medina: tajiri |
| John: meaning "rich" |
| Medina: this is an adjective. We use it to describe a financially well-to-do person or, sometimes, to casually refer to the “boss.” |
| John: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Medina: Sure. For example, you can say.. Mtu yeyote anayeuza viatu ni tajiri sana. |
| John: .. which means "Anyone who sells shoes is a rich person." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| John: In this lesson, you'll learn how to describe a person's looks and possessions. |
| Medina: In most cases, people are described using their physical appearance and characteristics. |
| John: For example, in the dialogue, the part of the body they mention when they’re describing the teacher is “hair,” |
| Medina: which in Swahili is nywele. In the dialogue we have nywele ndefu. The whole sentence is Ako na nywele ndefu na ni mweupe pe pe pe. |
| John: meaning “She has long hair and she is light skinned.” |
| Medina: So, the adjectives used to describe the teacher in the dialogue are ndefu, “long,” in regards to her hair, and mweupe, “light-skinned,” in regard to her skin. |
| John: Let’s look more closely at these adjectives. |
| Medina: Adjectives in Swahili assume a prefix that agrees with the qualifying noun. |
| John: In Swahili, it is important to understand noun classes in order to use the right prefix. |
| Medina: Right, for instance when using the adjective “long,” -refu, the prefix has to agree first. The first letter of the qualifying noun is mostly the prefix added to the adjective. |
| John: Let’s do some examples to understand it better. Let’s consider the previous example, “long hair” |
| Medina: As we said, “hair” is nywele and “long” in the dictionary form is -refu. The word -refu has to gain the same prefix of the noun, which is n-, so it will change to ndefu. |
| John: Ok, let’s consider another noun, such as “tree” |
| Medina: “tree” in Swahili is mti and its prefix is m- so “long” will change to mrefu. |
| John: In Swahili, the noun classes are the most important category, on the other hand, there isn’t any grammatical number or gender category. |
| Medina: Right. The plural and singular are expressed through the noun class. For example, if you want to say “student” in singular, in Swahili you have to say M-wanafunzi, which corresponds to the m- noun class |
| John: and if you want to say “students” in the plural version? |
| Medina: that’s wa-nafunzi, which corresponds to the wa- noun class. |
| John: Ok, let’s try to combine these nouns with some adjectives, such as “lazy student” in the singular form |
| Medina: “lazy” is -vivu, so “lazy student” is Mwanafunzi mvivu. |
| John: what about “brilliant students” in the plural? |
| Medina: “brilliant” is -erevu, so “brilliant students” is Wanafunzi werevu. |
| John: In the dialogue, we also saw adjectives to describe possessions. |
| Medina: Possessive adjectives are similar to the other adjectives. The adjectives assume a prefix that agrees with the qualifying noun. |
| John: Let’s see the example from the dialogue. |
| Medina: Niliona gari lake ni la aina ya Marcedes. |
| John: “I saw her car is a Mercedes.” |
| Medina: the stem for “her” or “his” is -ake, which in this sentence becomes lake, because the noun class is the general noun class with the form li - la. |
| John: Let’s give another example. |
| Medina: “Our tree” for example becomes Mti wetu. Mti is “tree” and wetu, meaning “our,” is made up of the stem -etu to which we add the prefix w- |
| John: Okay, let’s wrap up this lesson with a couple of sample sentences. |
| Medina: Mtoto huyo ni mrefu na mwembamba lakini ako na wazazi wafupi wanono. |
| John: "That baby is tall and thin, but her parents are short and fat." |
| Medina: Kijana aliye na kichwa kubwa ni mwalimu. |
| John: "The young man with the big head is a teacher." |
Outro |
| John: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Medina: Tuonane! |
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