Dialogue

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Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, is home to the highest number of people in the country. Besides road transport, the commuter train system also helps to move people between the city center and its outskirts. Trains run on four different lines that serve a limited number of areas in the city. All these lines come together at the Nairobi Railway Station, in the city centre, where you have to change trains to move from one outskirt to another.
BODY
You can only buy tickets at the stations. The conductors do also collect fares on the train from the other stops. Let’s imagine you don’t know how much it costs from the city to wherever you are going. You can ask for the ticket from the train attendant by saying
tiketi tafadhali.
(slow) ti - ke - ti ta - fa - dha - li.
tiketi tafadhali.
This is the same sentence we learned in lesson 22.
tiketi means “ticket.”
tafadhali means “Excuse me.”
Our location in this lesson will be Embakasi, which is to the east of Nairobi. Imagine you’re going from Nairobi Railway Station, the main station, to Embakasi. You want to know what line will get you there.
You can find out by asking, “Excuse me, what line do I need to use to get to Embakasi?”.
Tafadhali, ni laini ipi ninayopaswa kutumia ili nifike Embakasi?
Let’s break that down:
(slow) Ta - fa - dha - li, ni la - i - ni i - pi ni - na - yo - pa - swa ku - tu - mi - a i - li ni - fi - ke E - mba - ka - si?
And again at natural speed:
Tafadhali, ni laini ipi ninayopaswa kutumia ili nifike Embakasi?
First comes the usual Tafadhali.
(slow) Tafadhali.
Tafadhali.
Next are the two words ni laini which literally mean “is line,” but makes a lot of sense when ipi “which” is added at the end to make ni laini ipi. Altogether this means “which line”
(slow) ni laini ipi
ni laini ipi
Then comes ninayopaswa, which means “I am required”
ninayopaswa
(slow) ninayopaswa
ninayopaswa
After that comes kutumia (“to use”).
kutumia
(slow) kutumia
kutumia
Then we have ili (“so that”).
ili
(slow) ili
ili
This is followed by nifike (“to reach”).
nifike
(slow) nifike
nifike
Last is Embakasi, which is the name of the place.
All together, that’s
(slow) Ta - fa - dha - li, ni la - i - ni i - pi ni - na - yo - pa - swa ku - tu - mi - a i - li ni - fi - ke E - mba - ka - si?
Tafadhali, ni laini ipi ninayopaswa kutumia ili nifike Embakasi?
・
One possible answer is
Unapaswa utumie laini nambari mbili.
“You need to use line three.”
There are only 4 commuter train lines in Nairobi, so it will not be difficult to identify the train you will need to use.
Let’s break that sentence down:
(slow) U - na - pa - swa u - tu - mi- e la - i - ni na - mba - ri mbi - li.
Unapaswa utumie laini nambari mbili.
The first word is unapaswa, meaning “ you need to.”
unapaswa,
(slow) unapaswa,
unapaswa
And the second word is utumie, which means “to use.”
utumie
(slow) utumie
utumie
Let us repeat the whole sentence again;
Unapaswa utumie laini nambari mbili.
(slow) Unapaswa utumie laini nambari mbili.
Unapaswa utumie laini nambari mbili.
I guess you can now understand the last three words, laini nambari mbili.
“line number two.”
First word laini means “line”
laini
(slow) laini
laini
The second word nambari means “number”
nambari
(slow) nambari
nambari
The last word mbili, means “two”
mbili.
(slow) mbili.
mbili.
Together this will be
laini nambari mbili.
(slow) laini nambari mbili.
laini nambari mbili.

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