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?