“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.
If you talk to
him in his language, that goes to his heart.”
This post will explore
the benefits of learning a language whilst abroad - okay, not necessarily Swahili
- and the importance of this.
What are the benefits of learning Swahili? There are many reasons to learn a foreign language, but here are the main reasons why you should learn Swahili.
Knowing another language like Swahili is not just another hard skill you can add to your resume.
Swahili is very useful if you`re working broadly across East Africa, won`t be settled in one place, and will need to communicate with a variety of people across national and ethnic lines.
Basically, Swahili being a trade language is very useful in business. As a matter of fact employers are always looking for people that can expand their business overseas and being able to speak Swahili can lead you to land a better job and boost your career!
Swahili will definitely make it easier for one to build relationships and trust when working with people who speak Swahili, and it`s a bit more efficient than trying to learn many other different tribal languages of East and Central Africa.
East Africa also has a growing economy with abundant natural resources like Oil and Gas, huge tourism potential so if you`re looking at investing in East Africa, the answer is that you must learn this unifying language of East Africa spoken by well over one million people in the world.
Learning Swahili is an incredible way to meet new people and make new friends abroad. Willing to make native Swahili friends abroad? Swahili if learned will certainly increase your chances of finding and making friends with people that speak Swahili.
It`s also super easy to learn (things are written as they`re pronounced, and the grammatical rules to structure sentences aren`t crazy packed with tenses like in Russian or German), and really fun to speak. :)
Unlike any other African language, Swahili has developed into a very popular African language, taught in many leading academic institutions in Africa, Europe, America, and Asia. It is offered as a subject of study in prestigious universities like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and many others. It is estimated that close to a hundred institutions teach Swahili in the U.S. alone. Swahili has been taught in S.O.A.S. at the University of London since the 1930s. It is also taught in Canada, Germany, Poland, Mexico, Russia, Japan, India, and many other countries.
Where is Swahili spoken?
Swahili is the mother tongue of the Waswahili people who inhabit 1500 km strip in the East African Coast. It is the official and national language of both Kenya and Tanzania. Recently, Uganda has put measures in place to promote its official use as has its immediate neighbors. Kiswahili will, from 2020, become the latest language to be taught in South Africa’s classrooms. This East African lingua franca, which is also an official language of the African Union, will be an optional subject. Swahili is one of the four national languages of the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). Other countries where Swahili is widely used include Rwanda, Burundi, some parts of Somalia, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, and the Comoro Islands. Swahili is also used as a Lingua Franca for Eastern Africa and the neighboring countries.
Who speaks Swahili?
Today, Swahili is everywhere in the world. Swahili speakers are advised not to speak ill of other people anywhere because you never know who is listening. In fact, many Swahili speakers have been approached in Asia, Europe, and the Americas by the people they least expected to know a word they were saying.
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