A VERY LONG TICK TO YOU MAANDERA1
On 4/26/13, Maandera ibmaand...@gmail.com wrote:
Hmmm. Before reading this article, I had read another blog about 4 years
ago of an American also living in Arua and struggling to learn Lugbara.
That one was less dramatic than this one. But I'd also heard of people
saying Lugbara is a difficult language to learn. This had actually gotten
me thinking: Can't you try to make learning Lugbara easier? I made an
outline and soon foxed out, not with After all the grapes are sour but
with a barrage of: After all that is a relative statement. All languages
are difficult to learn. Try a click language and tell me it is easy. Try
the French which is spoken through the nose. . . etc, etc
Well, this blog got me updating my draft again based on some of the issues
pointed out in it. I am not yet finished. What got me particularly thinking
was how to best address the challenge of that apt comparison with Chinese -
due to the tonality of the language and the fact that we have several
dialects, which makes it a very rich and admittedly confusing language.
Allow me another foxing: Who says English or Dutch is not confusing?
As an English language teacher myself, I got loads of examples to which I
have no explanation or justification apart from saying, Sorry, but
exceptions confirm the rule! Why do the English for example say, the
singular form of the verb *to-be* is *is* and yet when you meet one
person (that is singular, for sure) you as How *are* you? as if there is
more than one person you are talking to? And the English have the audacity
to say that is Correct English! Don't tell me the word *wound* in the
following sentence has one and only one meaning: The nurse *wound* the
bandage around the *wound* of the *wounded* boy. And why should the plural
of *box* be bo*xes* and the one of ox be ox*en* and not ox*es*? And why
should a *driv**er* be a person, yet *cooker* is a thing for cooking and
the person is a *Cook* and what the *cook* does is to *cook*? They also
confuse us! But, that's the beauty and uniqueness of languages anyhow. The
more reason why people learn languages.
On a serious note: As many people have said, the article indeed made me see
some things differently. For example, that Lugbara is a visual language.
Hmmm. House-stomach! True, indeed. Visual and descriptive. That should make
it even easier to learn. Common language teachers, let's do something to
make this thing more palatable for those who want to get a different peek
into our culture - through the language.
The time keeping, I agree is something that is kind of different and
often works against us. Not only the Lugbara but Ugandans. Did you read
that article of the Teso youth protesting their MPs appearing at 6.30pm for
a meeting that was scheduled for 3pm. My foot. We still have something to
learn from the positive aspects of other cultures, which may enrich the
positives in ours.
Overall, it was some good food for thought and rib-breaking.
Thank you George.
On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 7:56 AM, Santorino Data
boymuked...@yahoo.comwrote:
Great piece of writing indeed.
This made my morning and now I understand why I spent 6 years in Arua and
still struggle to speak the language - confusion just that needs very
meticulous attention to detail and context even though I was from across
the Lugbara border in Kakwa land
*Dr. Data Santorino
**Lecturer Department of Pediatrics and Child Health
Mbarara University of Science and Technology
Uganda.*
--
*From:* Anyole J anyo...@yahoo.ca
*To:* George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com; A Virtual Network for
friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net; A Virtual Network for friends
of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net
*Sent:* Thursday, April 25, 2013 7:21 PM
*Subject:* Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2
cents-a good read!
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 gobi...@yahoo.com
*To:* A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net
*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
