I know this may sound silly, but language learning is hard! I know there are some blessed people who pick up on languages super fast and sound like native speakers, but let me just say - we aren’t those people. Hey, we get it - not everyone can be an all-star. But thankfully most of the Ethiopians are very gracious as we stumble through communication.
Recently, I have been informed by several Ethiopians that I say my “T” sound incorrectly. In English there is just one sound for the letter “T”. But in Amharic there are 6 and most of them sound the exact same to me! I have a hard time when the word ends with the “T” sound. It is a normal “T” sound followed by a super silent “i” sound - talk about tricky.
I’ve been making mistakes since I got here. I am notorious for using the masculine for for women and vise versa. Sometimes I start to say a verb and then drift off at the end of the word because I don’t know how to conjugate it. For the longest times I would tell the campers to “go over there” when I really meant “come here.” One of my teammates is teaching me Afaan Oromo and at the last camp I wanted to ask the kids “Are you ready?” before we started a drill, but what I actually said was “Start!” Talk about commotion and confusion.
Here are a few of my more humorous mistakes of late:
- I MEANT to say “Your shoes are very beautiful.” What I ACTUALLY said was “Your shoes are very tasty!”
- I MEANT to say “How is your son, Gunfa?” What I ACTUALLY said was “How is your son, Oatmeal (Gunfo)?”
- I MEANT to say “Have a good night.” What I ACTUALLY said was “Happy Birthday!”
Bryan's biggest challenge is that he can never tell when he speaking in Afaan Oromo or Amharic...
Recently, I have been informed by several Ethiopians that I say my “T” sound incorrectly. In English there is just one sound for the letter “T”. But in Amharic there are 6 and most of them sound the exact same to me! I have a hard time when the word ends with the “T” sound. It is a normal “T” sound followed by a super silent “i” sound - talk about tricky.
I’ve been making mistakes since I got here. I am notorious for using the masculine for for women and vise versa. Sometimes I start to say a verb and then drift off at the end of the word because I don’t know how to conjugate it. For the longest times I would tell the campers to “go over there” when I really meant “come here.” One of my teammates is teaching me Afaan Oromo and at the last camp I wanted to ask the kids “Are you ready?” before we started a drill, but what I actually said was “Start!” Talk about commotion and confusion.
Here are a few of my more humorous mistakes of late:
- I MEANT to say “Your shoes are very beautiful.” What I ACTUALLY said was “Your shoes are very tasty!”
- I MEANT to say “How is your son, Gunfa?” What I ACTUALLY said was “How is your son, Oatmeal (Gunfo)?”
- I MEANT to say “Have a good night.” What I ACTUALLY said was “Happy Birthday!”
Bryan's biggest challenge is that he can never tell when he speaking in Afaan Oromo or Amharic...
