Shona language course
For our trip to Zimbabwe, Betsy and I started on our Shona language course today. Set for four weeks, we’re supposed to get 36 hours of training. On top of that, we’ll have to do homework, making the grand total of hours spent learning Shona somewhere between 50 and 70. Not bad for learning a language.
Shona seems to be a fairly easy language. Sure, the vocabulary is completely new, although some words have been derived from English, but it’s also very regular, making it easier to deduct the meaning of words or sentences from the way they’re put together.
Our trainer, a 40-something Dutch woman who’s spent a number of years in Southern Africa is friendly and seems to be a quite reasonable teacher. Although the cassettes she seems to have prepared for us could have been upgraded to CDs.