I've always tried getting material online to teach me our language go which am an immature novice.i'v so far failed, but my determination is to have a senseof belonging which I can only fully have if I can speak lugbara.if there is anyone out there that can rescue a son of the soil, please, am dying to learn our language.
On Thursday, 25 April 2013, Anyole J <[email protected]> wrote: > This is a very interesting piece. It is always nice to see things from an out-siders perspective and make sense of things we are usually oblivious to, house-mouth, za-mva, et all! > The piece does bring out some things that worry anthropologist too, cultures are gradually getting eroded "traditions have been changing here as the pressure of our Western culture pervades and invades." as well, it high lights some issues that continue to plague us, such as time keeping, which has itself not been eroded by the same western culture. > Thanks for sharing this, it did make my day that more interesting, got me thinking. One of these days, "I'll beat my vernacular teacher a phone" > Anyole > ________________________________ > From: George Afi Obitre-Gama <[email protected]> > To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 4:12:31 AM > Subject: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! > > A new year, a new language, more confusion > > Why can't everyone speak English? > 16.01.2013 30 °C > Learning a new language and culture is like discovering a new world, opening your eyes and mind to completely amazing and strange ideas, some shocking, some fascinating, most unexpected. > Since the beginning of the new year, we have a new teacher, Eunice, who is hoping to make us into fluent Lugbara speakers within a few months… Lugbara is the local tribe in Arua, one of the 10 largest tribes in Uganda (out of a total of 34 ethnicities). The Lugbara are a tribe descended from Nigeria to settle here. Their territory extends around Arua and into the Democratic Republic of Congo, so families have been split by the arbitrary political boundaries drawn by the Europeans in Berlin in 1884. > Disconcertingly, we seem to be a source of great amusement for most of the ex-pats when we tell them we are taking this time to study Lugbara. “Good luck”, they tell us. They then go on to tell you a story of someone who has been attempting the language for many years and haven’t gotten very far. Some compare the language to Chinese, saying it is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn. It is quite depressing hearing this, obviously… Additionally, having grown up in Congo and learning Swahili there, having lived in Malawi and Kenya and trying to learn the languages there, while being exposed to various other African languages, it is frustrating to have to start at zero like a baby once again….those languages are nothing like Lugbara! > Most whites don’t even bother to learn Lugbara especially since this tribe is only one of 5 in the close vicinity of one another. For example, the Alur are settled on the outskirts of Arua town. Their language is close to the Luo language which we were learning in Kenya. To make it even worse, there are sub-sections of the Lugbara tribe with variations in the way words are said. Whoopee to learning a difficult language which is only spoken by a few and which is nothing like any other language we have ever heard! > Eunice, in action, confusing us > Eunice is a good teacher, though, having patience with us as we sit on the veranda trying to repeat what on earth she has just said. As a Lugbara, she is also good at turning up late, demonstrating how a Lugbara should act. As Lilian, another Lugbara who works for us says, “Lugbaras is not following time, ha!” and laughs out loud. So, anyway, she is almost an hour late today, but since we live in Africa, you never know what may have happened. It could be a relative has just died and she has to go to the funeral. > Despite the issue of time-keeping, which especially bothers Emma, Eunice has been effective at moving us on in the language. Emma and I already feel more confident using some simple phrases and greetings. For example, I was particularly proud when I asked for 10 eggs the other day in the local wooden duka close to our home. “Ife mani augbe mundri”. The word for egg 'augbe' is spoken as though you are swallowing an egg... > One of the problems of learning Lugbara is that the same words can mean completely different things. So, for instance, the word for sauce, “tibi”, is the same word for ‘beard’, just with a different tone. Emma wonders if this has anything to do with someone’s long beard dragging in their gravy once upon a time. There are other examples, though the best so far is the word ‘ago’, which if intonated differently, can either mean ‘husband’ or ‘pumpkin’. A phrase like ‘my beautiful fiancée’ can also come across as ‘my beautiful warthog’, so any wannabe suitors need to be pretty careful in this town… > Emma also uses a lot of imagination when it comes to remembering the Lugbara phrases or words. So, for instance, the word for peanuts is ‘funo’ (foon-oh). Emma thinks of little peanuts bouncing around and having a lot of fun. It can be a bit of a tentative or weird link at times. She is constantly whispering to me how I can remember a word. Awupi (A-whoopee) is the word for Aunt on your dad’s side. Obviously, this conjures up thoughts of playing a trick with my Auntie Barbara with a whoopee cushion…’Fetaa’ (feta) means gift and so it is remembered by thinking of giving someone a gift of cheese. I often wish I had had Emma as a study partner for my IGCSE or IB exams in Holland as I would not have spent so many lost hours staring blankly at walls trying to cram boring information into my struggling mind. > Alongside Emma's visual mind, we are > _______________________________________________ > WestNileNet mailing list > [email protected] > http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet > > WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ > > The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. > _______________________________________________ > > > -- Buchsa All rights reserved.
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