Can Jess learn isiZulu in 7 months?
I'm going to go ahead and spoil my own post by saying - no. No, she cannot. I would love to be optimistic, but if I couldn’t learn French after 9 years I’m not feeling great about my chances here. THAT being said, I will be giving it my all, swallowing all my pride, and willingly getting laughed at by 6 year olds when they try and teach me the correct pronunciation of iqanda. (Which is "egg" by the way… not the most necessary word to know, but I've learned they have purposely been picking words with 'clicks' just to laugh at Ariana and I and our 'weak English tongues')
“Sawubona!”
"Sawubona, unjani?"
"Ngiyaphila, wena unjani?"
"Ngiyaphila ngiyabonga"
Every night for the first two weeks or so, Ariana and I sat in our room and just repeatedly practiced our 'q' clicks to each other - if someone could have been a fly on the wall, I'm sure we would have looked certifiable. But, when in Rome...
A month in, and I've mastered 'hello'
While this is not the easiest language to pick up when you've spent 24 years never having to make a click sound, it definitely is a good way to bond with the kids - even when they're just laughing at how we butcher it! All the kids we've met so far have been SO excited to teach us new words and help us with our pronunciation, which has been our go-to conversation starter with all our new buddies.
So, in the end, will I learn isiZulu with any kind of fluency by November? Likely not, but that doesn't mean I won't try my hand at ordering iqanda on toast every chance I get.
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