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| My Luo teacher, Rosemary :) |
Language class has been
such a big part of my life here so far…Every morning (Monday-Friday), a native
lady comes here to my backyard and we spend several hours together…working
through books, discussing words and grammatical concepts, SINGING lots of LUO songs!!, talking about lots of things, discussing Luo culture, and just having fun together.
…but…
The other day, I
was feeling so burned out. Morning after morning, 8-12, trying to
make sense of all these complicated words: kelo, kendo, ketho, keyo,
keto, kepo, kecho, kero, keno, kedo… So, kero means to
give…and kelo means to bring…and ketho means to
place, put, or set…and keno means to store…
and all of their meanings seem way too similar. Some of my
enthusiasm and determination to make fast tracks to learn this language was
disappearing. I was just feeling a bit overwhelmed and even
frustrated with the dhoLuo (Luo language) in general.
Then, Chapter 14
came along – Constructions Using Parts of the Body…
Often the verb in Luo is
transitive, with the part of its body as its object, but in English the part of
the body becomes the subject of an intransitive verb. Therefore, you
get some examples such as this with their literal meanings:
iya
owang’ my
stomach
burns I am angry.
wiye owil
kode his
head is turned by
it He has forgotten it.
ne wakuodo
wigi we swelled their
heads We shamed them.
iya
kaya my stomach bites
me My stomach aches.
…and so many more… now,
when your teacher is Rosemary and she can make anything funny, this gets really, really
humorous. Things also begin to make sense:
chunye
pek his
heart is
heavy He is sad.
chunye oduogo his heart has now returned He is encouraged.
The little hut in my backyard where we have our classes:
On Wednesdays, we walk to the market to get fruits and vegetables. The hands-on classes are the fun days!
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| One of the ladies at the market (L) and ROSEMARY (R) |
This verse is found on the first page of my textbook- "Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." Genesis 11:7
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