Chichewa

Lack of Communication

We have both had communication difficulties this month:

Penny told Dyna, our former language teacher, that Dean was buying sand, and Dyna asked why he needed it. Penny replied, “Aku panga chimbudzi.” With a hint of a smile, Dyna asked, “Aku manga chimbudzi?” A couple of hours later Penny suddenly burst out laughing, realizing what she had said. “Manga” and “panga” both mean “make,” but in a different sense. Aku manga chimbudzi means, “He is building a toilet,” while aku panga chimbudzi is, well, something that you do in the toilet. Continue reading “Lack of Communication” →

20 November 2013 0

Piles of Poop

When anyone starts learning Chichewa, one of the first phrases learned is “pang’ono pang’ono.” It means little by little. In the past week, I have heard this phrase when talking about my children adjusting to life back in Lilongwe, when discussing language learning, and when talking about the work that needs to be done on our house. It is a handy and encouraging phrase in Malawi where change occurs slowly. Continue reading “Piles of Poop” →

20 October 2013 0

Fun Signs

My all-time favorite name for a shop in Malawi is “If You Don’t Have Money Don’t Bother Me Welding Shop.” Another favorite is the “99% God’s Plan” used clothing store. I asked the store owner what the other 1% is, and she replied that it’s her hard work.

Some store names are open to misinterpretation, especially for people like me who lack socio-linguistic background. Continue reading “Fun Signs” →

5 September 2013 0

Oops!

A Malawian woman was leaving our home, and I asked her if I could open the gate for her. Except that the Shona word for “open,” from my Zimbabwe days, came out instead of the Chichewa word for open.

So what I actually said was “Can I undress for you? The gate.”

I’m at least glad that adding “gate” to the end made it obvious that I had made some sort of error!

20 August 2011 0

Duck, Duck, Chicken!

Our kids are enjoying their Chichewa lessons with Amayi Goba, and they especially love that Amayi Goba plays games with them.

Our kids taught Amayi Goba how to play “Duck, Duck, Goose.” Then they learned that “duck” and “goose” are both “bakha” in Chichewa. So they had to modify the game a bit. They played “Duck, Duck, Chicken” instead.

We’re very happy that they’re learning some Chichewa. I took the kids with me to the market today, and for the first time they were confident enough to greet people there. A wonderful beginning!

4 July 2011 0

(Mis-) Communication

We laughed very hard at a mistake Dean made yesterday in our language lesson; I still get the giggles when I think of it. He was trying to tell our teacher that I cut his hair this past weekend. Since many of the words are similar between Chishona (which we learned in Zimbabwe) and Chichewa (the official language of Malawi), he decided to use the Chishona word for hair. Our teacher had a funny look on her face and said “Why is he telling me this?” After he explained in English what he was trying to say in Chichewa, she patiently taught us the three words Chichewa has for hair: tsitsi (hair on your head), cheya (hair on your arms and legs), and bvuzi (pubic hair, the word that Dean used). That explained her reaction! We had a good laugh and learned a valuable lesson about hair in Chichewa.

29 September 2010 0