Learn Some Swahili!

As in most countries, learning a few simple phrases in the local language can get you far in Kenya! Your new friends will love to hear you try to speak Swahili, even if you mangle a few words. Swahili is one of the easiest languages to learn. You might be surprised to realize you already know some swahili! For example, "safari" means "trip" and "simba" (as in The Lion King) means "Lion." "Kwanza" means "first" and "rafiki" means "friend."

Most Kenyans speak English, but you will see that they are usually more comfortable speaking Swahili and will speak that when talking amongst themselves.

Here are a few Swahili phrases to get you started. Click here if you want to download the Swahili into a Word Document for later use. At the bottom of the page is a pronunciation key.

Pronunciation

If you speak Spanish (or Italian) you have an advantage. The vowels in swahili all have the same sound as in Spanish.

Unlike in English, the vowels never change sounds and never smush together to make a new sound. So "choo" written above is pronounced "ch-oh" or even "cho-oh" (where "o" sounds like the "o" in "taco" or "owe") but never "choo" like the train.

You may have already noticed that some swahlii words seem difficult to pronounce such as "mzuri." Just as with the vowels, remember that you have to pronounce each letter separately so "mzuri" is "mm-zuri" where "mm" is like a humming sound. Until you get the hang of it, just say "Missouri" and you will still be understood.

For the word "tafadhali" think of "dh" as "th" and your pronunciation will be close enough.

Besides swahili, about 40 other langaguages are also spoken. If you like languages, ask your new Kenyan friends to teach you a few greetings in their mother tongue (the language that their tribe speaks). Knowing a few greetings in a mother tongue always gets the Kenyans laughing.