Apr9 Written by:Kayle
4/9/2008 3:43 AM
Mat and I had our faculty evaluation at the end of this term with the head of Biblical Studies, Craig Jones. The main thing I noticed in filling out the evaluation forms (and what Craig had noticed as well) was that it would be good for me to learn more about African culture, language and people in order to be a better lecturer (as sometimes I've unintentionally miscommunicated things from one culture to another). So Mat and I decided that it is time that we start taking Ndebele lessons. Actually, our small group from church (half black African, half internationals) all decided that we wanted to learn Ndebele so one of the guys in our small group, Mpi, has decided to teach us Ndebele. Our first lesson was tonight where we simply went through the pronounciation of the alphabet.
There are 3 clicks to get down: one click like you are calling a horse, the second click is what you sometimes do when saying "No, no, no!" to children to express your displeasure (tongue behind teeth) and the third is just a regular click where your tongue pulls away from the top of your palate to make a click. On their own, these clicks are easy to do, but when trying to put them into the middle of a word, it is quite tough. We all had a good time laughing as we sought to pronouce these sounds correctly.
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