Intro Course Wrap-Up

I haven't been able to do a proper wrap-up and it's been over two weeks since the course ended. I apologize...but I have decided not to do it now. Of course, the lessons don't end with this little summer course. When I resume learning Twi, I'll be back to share the lessons and my reflections on this blog. This probably won't happen until sometime this fall, so check back then if you're interested. Thanks for checking out the blog. I hope it has been useful.

Review of Grammar Difficulties; Emphatic Particles; Various Phrases

The last week of class... Today was the last day of instruction. Tomorrow we'll take the final and perform our presentations.

Today, we were lucky to have 3 visitors- Ghanaian-American girls that have a variety of experience with Twi. At least one of them can understand it perfectly and I'm pretty sure she speaks it well. It's nice that these young women are interested in the class, though it's a shame they couldn't attend until the end.

We went over a few of the difficult grammar points to wrap up the class. It's the first time in a week or so that we've done this kind of work. We've been working hard on our dialogs and personally-relevant vocabulary. So, this is a bit of a review, but there is also some clarification of past topics.

Past vs. Future Tenses, etc.
Adjectives
Emphatic Particles

S⊃ka oo!

GHANA WINS in the Round of 16!!! Though I'm sad that the USA is going home, I'm very proud of Ghana. They played really well and definitely deserve to advance. Next Saturday, they have to beat Uruguay. As long as they continue to play strong and do well with defense, I'm confident they can win.

(Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch the game cause I was watching a much-anticipated concert in Central Park. Tinariwen (and band from Mali) was playing there for free- how could I resist seeing such an amazing band?)

My Vocabulary

Today, we took the big quiz. Here is the vocabulary I needed to know for the dialog. There's a lot. I didn't remember most of it, but I was able to use the important, big words. Hopefully I did well!

εdeεn [eh-dee-ehn] = what
nimdeε [neem-dee-eh] = knowledge
nnwom = music
nnwomtofo⊃ [nn-wohm-toe-foe-ah] = musicians
nnwomto⊃ [nn-wohm-toe-ah] = singing
twerε = to write

Possessive Pronouns; Past Tense

This week has been a little slower. We have a big quiz tomorrow, so we have spent a lot of class time discussing it and the final week of class. Today, we discussed a few phrases, but mostly worked on our dialogs. I'm not going to put mine on here because it's pretty long and complicated. We're supposed to study it for the quiz tomorrow, but I can't remember all the different terms, so I'll have to simplify it. For today's post, I'm going to just share a few things we were supposed to study in the book over the weekend: possessive pronouns and the past tense.

Possessive Pronouns:
me = my
wo = your
ne = his / her
yεn = our
mo = your
w⊃⊃nom / ⊃⊃mo = their

S⊃ka

Great news: Ghana is moving on to the round of 16!!
Just thought I'd throw that in here...
The next game is against the USA- that's going to be hard to watch.

Terms of Time; Idiomatic Expressions; Serial Verbs

Today, we spent half the day practicing numbers 1-10. As difficult as they are to remember, it became a bit too redundant. We just need to practice on our own. Does anyone out there have a good suggestion for remembering the basic numbers and the tens?

The second half was focused on "expressions of time" and translating verb conjugations. Both of these aspects are crucial to basic conversation in Twi. Here are some of the most important terms for time:

an⊃pa [ana-pa] = morning
awia [ay-wee-ah] = noon / afternoon / sun
anwumerε [an-womay-reh] = evening
anadwo [ana-jwoh] = night
εnnora [ehn-norah] = yesterday
εnnε [ehn-neh] = today
⊃kyena [aw-chenah] = tomorrow
seesei [saay-say] = now
seesei ara = right now ("ara" puts emphasis on "seesei")
akyire yi [aw-chireh yee] = later ("yi" puts emphasis on "akyire")

Pluralizing nouns, Negative & Perfect Tenses

Fakyε me (forgive me) because this entry is a day late. "Fakyε me," or "Mo mfa nkyε me" in long form, implies that you're guilty and you're asking for the people you kept waiting to forgive you.

At the end of yesterday's session, we learned the Twi words for day, week, month, and year. Today, we'll learn how to transform them into plural forms. It's very tricky. Our teacher wants us to focus on a few main rules for pluralizing, rather than try to remember all of them. If pluralizing sounds really complicated, it is. Way too complicated! Here are the main rules and several examples:

• Replace beginning vowels with the prefix "a-" for words that begin with e ε o ⊃
• ⊃dan (house) --> adan (houses)
• bosome (month) --> abosome (months)

Homework 2

We had a real homework assignment today. We had to write a summary of a film clip we watched in class, list 10 words that start with e ε ⊃, and do an exercise in our book. I'll spare you the first part, but the vocab and book exercise might be useful.

10 words that begin with e ε ⊃:

εbo⊃ = cost, price

⊃h⊃ho⊃ [aw-haw-ho-AW] = guest

εfã [ehfa(n)] = half, part

εhyeε [eh-shieh] = heat

εk⊃m [ehkohm] = hunger

emu [i-moo] = inside

⊃bra [aw-brah] = life

edwa [e-jwah] = market

εsε / εw⊃ sε [eseh] = must …, necessary that …, ought to …

εdan / ⊃dan [eh-dan] = room, house

Numbers / N⊃ma

Maadwo!

Earlier today, we learned how to count! Numbers 0-10 are difficult to remember, so we've actually taken the lesson very slowly. I don't know why, but 2 and 3 are pretty long. It would be nice to find out why. Also, 0 means "nothing" so it counts as both a quantity and a noun. Here are the n⊃ma from 0-10:

0 hwéé [whehh]
1 baakõ [bahhko(n)]
2 mmienu [mmee-ehnoo]
3 mmeεnsã [mmee-ehnza(n)]
4 (ε)nan [eh-nine]
5 (e)num [ay-noom]
6 (e)nsĩã [ayn-seeah(n)]
7 (ε)nson [ehn-sOn]
8 nw⊃twe [en-wah-chweh]
9 (ε)nkron [ehn-krawn]
10 (e)du [ay-doo]

Note: To use numbers as qualifiers of nouns (to express the quantity of something), place the number after the noun.

Who are you?

Today, we learned how to talk about where we're from and who we are.

For example:
Yε woo me [Yeh woo mi] Redondo Beach. = I was born in Redondo Beach.
Mefiri [Meefeeree] California. = I'm from California.
Meyε Californiani. [Miyeh California-nee] = I'm a Californian.
Mete [Meetee] New York. = I live in New York. (Depending on the context, "te" is either "sense" or "currently live".)
Mefiri aburokyire. [Meefeeree ah-booroh-cheereh] = I'm from overseas.

Dialogues

Adesuafo⊃, maadwo!

Today, we spent the majority of class time on our conversation skills. Mine are very poor. I just can't seem to remember words and phrases. And I inevitably get tongue-tied when I have to say something on my own. Why?? Anyway, here are some useful phrases / ready-made dialogues...

A: Sister, maahã.

B: Yaa nua.

A: Wo hõ te sεn?

B: Me hõ yε.

A: Mepaakyεw, wofiri he?

B: Mefiri aburokyire.

A: Wofiri kuro bεn so?

B: Mefi California. Wonim h⊃?

A: Daabi. Mate din.

B: Yεbεhyia bio.

A: Yoo.

Prefixes: Pronouns and 2 Tenses

After we finished going through our personal vocabulary, we moved on to some prefixes- pronouns and verb tenses.

There are 7 basic pronouns:
me
wo
⊃no
εno
yεn
mo
w⊃n (also can use w⊃⊃nom or ⊃⊃mo but we weren't told when to use them)

Our Vocabulary: The Homework Wrap-up

Mekyia mo oo!

On Tuesday, we shared our important vocabulary words from the homework, and then learned phrases that would help us to use them. These words and phrases are important for most people to know, so this was a really helpful class activity.

Kojo only was able to offer 1 word. This was a relief because we took up a lot of class time going over our words. He's a native speaker, so he doesn't need to know a bunch of new phrases! Hi word was "tete" [tété] which means "ancient times" or "ancestors," depending on the context. He offered us a little proverb using this word: "Tete w⊃ bĩ kyerε." = The ancestors have a great amount of knowledge to teach us.

More Classroom Conversation

Yεfrε me Akua [Aquia] Alison!
(My name is or, literally, They call me "Girl born on a Wednesday" Alison)

Today, we learned about a few more ways to greet people, especially ways relevant to the classroom. I also learned my Akan "day" name (Akua or Akua Alison if there is more than 1 Akua present). Most of the day was spent working on classroom and travel phrases. We also reviewed our homework, but didn't finish.

How to greet the teacher:
Student: Abusuapanin maahã. [Abuiswiapaneen, maaha(n)] = Good afternoon, professor.
Teacher: Ya enua / Yenua. [Ya enwia / Yenwia] = You, too.
Student: Na wo hõ te sεn? [Na, wo ho(n) teh sen] = How are you?
Teacher: Onyame adom, meho yε. [Onyami adom, meho(n) ye] = By God's grace, I'm well.

Homework 1

Maadwo!

We had homework over the weekend. We had to translate a few English phrases in the textbook, then pick 5 words from the short dictionary in the back of the book that we find important.

First, try to do the assignment yourself using the vocabulary from previous lessons.
1. Good morning, sir / ma'am.
2. Good afternoon, father / mother.
3. Good evening, ma'am / mother / aunt.
4. Please, call Amma for me.
5. I am going to call Amma.
6. Is your mother at home?
7. Is your father in?

More Greetings and Responses (Very long lesson!)

This might be a little late in the year, but... Mema wo Afenhyia pa. Correct response: Afe nk⊃ mmεto yεn bio. (I wish you a good year... May the year go around and come to us again.)

We started off the class with a review and added a few new phrases:
Adult: Awuraa, maakyē. (Good morning, ma'am.)
Youth: Yaa agya [aja]. (general response)
Adult: Wo hõ te sεn? (How are you?)
Youth: Mepa wo kyεw [mepaakyεw], me hõ yε. (Please, I'm fine.)
(Note: The older person is supposed to ask the younger how he/she is doing. The younger person does not ask this back. My teacher explains that this is because youths are very important and it is in the interest of the adult/elder to take care of the younger people. It is still necessary to be very polite, no matter who you're taking to, so terms of politesse are crucial in every conversation.)

Mepaakyεw, den asεm?

Greetings and Classroom Etiquette

Mema wo akyē!

Day 2 of Week 1- We learned important phrases for the classroom so that our teacher can speak to us in Twi.

Greetings:
Mema wo akyē [Maakyē] = Good morning
Mema wo ahã [Maahã] = Good afternoon
Mema wo adwo [Maadwõ] = Good evening
Da yie = Good night / sleep well
Nante yie = Goodbye / walk safely

Responses:
Yoo = Alright (general response to greetings)
Yaa agya - proper response to older male / father
Yaa εna - proper response to older female / mother
Yaa ⊃ba - proper response to child by adult
Yaa nua - proper response to a colleague / person of same age (difficult to say! [yæænwĩã])

Introduction and Alphabet

Akwaaba!

I'm a day behind because I just got the (brilliant?) idea to create a blog that will follow me through this course as a way to review and practice the material AND share the lessons with others interested in learning (Asante-)Twi.

On the first day of class, we introduced ourselves, and I learned that I'm the only one who has no experience with Twi! Everyone has been to Ghana. One woman did her fieldwork in Ghana, two women have Ghanaian family members, and one man is Ghanaian and speaks Twi. There are only five students, which is great! We have plenty of opportunities for getting the pronunciation of each word and phrase correct. Twi is a tonal language, so the meaning of a word or phrase relies on knowing EXACTLY how to pronounce it. It's a lot of pressure.