Learning Chichewa

Chichewa is a Bantu language. It is the national language of Malawi as well as English. Chichewa means actually the language (chi-) of Chewa. It is also spoken in Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. In Malawi more than half of the population speaks Chichewa. Other local languages are Yao, Ngoni, and Lomwe. Only people with some education speaks English so when going to the field most of the farmers don't speak English. One of my biggest motivations to learn Chichewa, is to be able to speak with the people I meet in the field. Next time I go there I want to be able to say some simple phrases.

Tomorrow is my fourth lesson. So far I have learnt some greetings, introducing myself and talk about food. Here are some useful words:

Muli bwanji?                            How are you?

Ndili bwino, kaya inu?              I’m fine, and you?

Zikomo                                    Thank you

Tionana                                    See you

And my favourite word so far; Ndasangala, which means I am happy.

This is how my dining room looks like

Some words doesn’t exist in Chichewa so then you use the English word. But sometimes they also turn an English word into a Chichewa like word. For example “juice” is called “juwisi”. They also have numbers in Chichewa but you only use the words for one to five. But mostly you only here people counting in English. Sometimes you also have words that are similar to Spanish. For example “mbatata” which in Spanish is “batatat”, means “potatoes.

The grammar is very different from English but somehow similar to Spanish. You have different subject prefixes for different persons. What can be a sentence in English become only one word in Chichewa. For example “I was eating” would be “Ndimadya”. 

This is what I am struggling with at the moment. But it is very fun because every time I try to say something in Chichewa, people looks so happy. Sometimes they get carried away though they think I know much more than I actually do.