Molweni bahlobo bam!

translation: Hello my friends!

Today was my first isiXhosa tutorial and man was it overwhelmimg.  The way it works at Rhodes is that there are lectures, tutorials (tuts), and practicals (pracs).  Basically each class is made up of 3-5 lectures a week accompanied by tuts or pracs.  The tuts and pracs are more important than the lectures and are interactive.  It’s like a discussion group at BC that actually matters.  My zoo class has a 3 hour prac every Wednesday (this week we are dissecting turtles), my art history class has a weekly tut (which I also had for the first time today), and my isiXhosa class has two tuts a week. That was a lot of parentheses, I’ll try and stay away from those for a while. (No guarantees.  Actually, because I will be translating some things, I can guarantee the opposite.)

Anyway, today was my first isiXhosa tut and the titshalakazi (female teacher) walked in and spoke only isiXhosa. Clicks and all. I looked around.  Half of the people in the class completely understood and were responding. Why are they in isiXhosa 1 non-mother tongue??? Luckily, the other half of the class looked as terrified as I did.  The only thing she said in English was“in this class, we only speak Xhosa.” She then started asking us questions in Xhosa and expecting us to respond. In Xhosa.  I was the fourth person down the line and I was preceded by three people who already spoke Xhosa. Awesome. No help for me. Oh well. I was able to answer what my name was and how I was doing, but I didn’t remember the word for surname so I became a little confused by that. How did I respond? By speaking Spanish. Ya…

Titshalakazi: Molo sisi (Hello sister)

Claire: Molo titshalakazi (Hello teacher)

T: Unjani sisi? (How are you?)

C: Ndiphilile, enkosi. Unjani wena? (I am fine, thank you. And how are you?)

T: Ndiphilile, enkosi. Ungubani igama lakho sisi? (What is your name?)

C: Igama lam nguClaire. (My name is Claire)

T: Ungubani ifani yakho sisi? (What is your surname?)

[[sidenote: She has a very heavy accent and is speaking rapidly. Can you blame me for not understanding a question in a language I have never heard before?]]

C: Ifani yam….ehhh…lo siento pero no se….ohhhhhh……ifani yam nguKreeft. (My surname is….ehhh…I am sorry but I don’t know…ohhhhh….my surname is Kreeft)

Phew. Made it out alive.  We also had to say where we came from and when I said California she made all these noises and said things and people laughed and I had NO CLUE what was going on. So, being me, I sat there and smiled because that’s what I do when I’m nervous. She then just stared at me and then it got silent. And awkward. At least I felt that way. Then she said in English “I will ask you a question later about that, when you have learned more Xhosa.” What does that mean??? I guess I will find out later.