 Hawa wageni wa Kiswahili walinishangaza sana majuzi nilipokuwa naperuzi picha katika tovuti ya kuhifadhia picha ya Flickr. Basi aliyezibebesha picha zenye maneno yenye tafsiri ya lugha kadha wa kadha, mojawapo ilikuwa ni ile iliyopewa jina Swahili inasomeka, 'VITA NI JUU KAMA UNATAKA IT' (pichani kushoto). 'asa mi n'kajiuliza, ala, huyu alitaka kusemaje? na maana yake ipi? Katika kudadisi ndipo nikasoma alichoandika kwa lugha ya Kiingereza, 'WAR IS OVER IF YOU WANT IT'. Nikagundua hapa imetumika tafsiri ya neno moja baada ya jingine ama kwa kutumia kamusi au mashine ya "google translate" ambapo: WAR = VITA IS = NI OVER = JUU IF = KAMA YOU WANT = UNATAKA Ndo matokeo yake wakapata hii kanyaboya. Hawakufahamu kuwa kuwa neno moja laweza kuwa na maana zaidi ya moja au matumizi ya neno yaweza yasilete au yapoteze kabisa maana kulingana na ujumbe unaokusudiwa kufikishwa. Kumbe walipaswa kuandika, 'VITA IMEKWISHA...' Sasa basi ndiyo hata nikajikumbusha, ya kuwa, ukitaka kujifunza lugha ngeni, shurti uulize wenyeji, la umekwama, akheri ukaingia darasani kabisaa, usijeleta shari katika lugha ya watu ukaonwa kituko buree.  Nakumbuka ni jana tu hapa niliandika habari ya 'penye miti hakuna wajenzi' kuhusiana na Waingereza kuchukua hatua ya kutufundisha michezo yetu wenyewe ili kutusaidia kuiweka katika hadhi na ngazi ya Kimataifa zaidi. Leo nimesoma habari katika tovuti ya BBC inayohusu jirani zetu wa Kenya kuwa wamechukua michoro ya tingatinga na kiweka katika kiwango cha zaidi ya mchoro tu.  bofya picha kutizama video Hivi sasa wenzetu hao si kuwa wanachora kwa ajili ya kuuza na kujipatia kipato, bali wanaitengenezea michezo ya katuni zinazoonekana katika runinga. Wamepiga hatua na kuwakilisha kazi zao katika mashirika makubwa ya utangazaji na sanaa hii kama vile shirika la Taifa la Utangazaji la nchini Uingereza (BBC) na kampuni kongwe katika sanaa ya katuni ya Disney. Hatua waliyoipiga si ndogo kwani yahitaji utaalamu na umakinifu katika uchoraji na utengenezaji picha kuwa katika uhalisia. Nilichojiuliza ni, ikiwa majirani zetu hawa wameona na wamejaribu na wanaweza, je! sisi tulio asili na chimbuko la michoro ya Tinga Tinga, chatushindani? Ama kweli penye miti wajenzi hamna'ga. Ndiyo yale yale, Mlima Kilimanjaro upo Tanzania, wanaofaidi Wakenya, siye tuendelee kulalamika, 'oh ni wetu, ni wetu', 'waongo, waongo'. Sawa ni wetu, halafu? Yaani ukisha kuwa wenu ndo' basi yatosha? If you know anybody in the US asking where they can learn Kiswahili and other African languages, please spread the word that they can learn it through the Language Resource Center. The Languages & Culture Studies Department and the Africana Studies Department are working together to offer courses in Swahili and Yoruba for motivated and self-directed students. Learn to speak Swahili Swahili is one of the major languages spoken in Africa. It is the lingua franca of eastern and central Africa where over 50 million people speak it. It is widely used in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. A little over 1 million people speak it as their first language. (Source: lang.nalrc.wisc.edu/resources/press/brochures/swahili.pdf) SPRING 2010 Elementary Foreign Language: Swahili Language & Culture - AFRS 2050 / LACS 1201, TR 2:00 - 3:15 pm Learn to speak Yoruba Yoruba is the first language of approximately 30 million West Africans, and is spoken by populations in Southwestern Nigeria, Togo, Benin, and Sierra Leone. It is also one of the prominent languages & cultures of the diaspora, and greatly impacts the social, cultural, and religious lives of millions of people in countries outside of Africa, such as Brazil, Cuba, Trinadad, Haiti, and more. (Source: lang.nalrc.wisc.edu/resources/press/brochures/yoruba.pdf) SPRING 2010 Elementary Foreign Language: Yoruba Language & Culture I - AFRS 2050 / LACS 1201 ; MW 3:30 - 4:45 pm Elementary Foreign Language: Yoruba Language & Culture II - AFRS 2050 / LACS 1202 ; TR 3:30 - 4:45 pm For more information contact: Dr. Akin Ogundiran, Chair, Africana Studies, email: Ogundiran@uncc.edu or Dr. Heather McCullough, Director, Language Resource Center, email: hamccull@uncc.edu The Ghana Institute of Languages in Kumasi is to introduce Swahili, Portuguese and Chinese languages into its study programmes, Mr C.K. Angkosaala, the acting Director, has announced. This, he said, would help to promote effective integration and socio-economic development. Mr Angkosaala was addressing the eighth matriculation ceremony for 474 students of the Institute, who have been admitted to study French, German, Spanish, Arabic, English and bilingual secretary-ship. Mr Angkosaala advised the students to avoid procrastination, planned and organised their activities in a manner that would enable them to pursue their goals successfully. He also told them to distance themselves from questionable lifestyles saying: “I want you to be builders and not wreckers of the society.” The acting Director asked the students to serve as “ambassadors of peace” and to help promote social harmony and understanding. Mr Edwin Dery, Head of the Institute, said they have planned to collaborate with the University of Cape Coast (UCC), to run degree programmes. They have acquired a 33-acre stretch of land at Sawua in the Bosomtwe District to build hostels to accommodate both students and staff. Nana Kyei Baffour II, Asemhene, advised Ghanaians not to only develop interest in the learning of international languages but the local ones as well. Info source: http://ghanabusinessnews.com Windows 7 in Kiswahili: work in progress... 12/08/2009
Software giant Microsoft is working with Baraza la Kiswahili Tanzania (Bakita) and the University of Dar es Salaam to install a Kiswahili version of its operating system for personal computers, Windows 7. The project to process the Kiswahili interface in Windows 7 will also bring in professionals from Kenya and Uganda. Microsoft has developed a language interface pack that will serve more than 12 million Kiswahili language speakers in East, Central and Southern Africa. Windows 7 will also be available in nine other African languages to increase usage, fight software piracy, increase use of local languages online and drive computer penetration beyond English and French. ...by 2011, Windows 7 will be available in languages such as Sesotho sa Leboa, Setswana, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Afrikaans, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, kiSwahili and Amharic. Kiswahili is spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit large stretches of the Indian Ocean coastline from southern Somalia to northern Mozambique, including the Comoros Islands. It is the only language of African origin among the official languages of the African Union. About 35 per cent of the Kiswahili vocabulary derives from Arabic, gained through more than 12 centuries of contact with Arabic-speaking traders. Kiswahili has also incorporated Farsi, German, Portuguese, English and French into its vocabulary over the past five centuries. Written by Mike Mande, this story is published on AllAfrica.com, read it in full length at http://allafrica.com/stories/200912071133.html It is always good to surf the internet and come across international websites named after Kiswahili word(s), even better, if written in Kiswahili. Just found out a sleek, neat, informative and interactive website by the name kunena.com. Though not written in Kiswahili, the site description reads as follows: Kunena, translated from Swahili meaning "to speak," arose out of a fork of the former Fireboard forum with a new team and some of the previous developers, including several Joomla core developers. Kunena 1.5.7 is the most recent stable Joomla 1.5 native version of Kunena. Only a few months after the launch of Kunena, 1.5.4 marked a major milestone in the development of the next generation forum component for Joomla. Learn more about kunena.com at http://www.kunena.com  A book by Prof. J. Mbele Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences is a book by Professor Joseph Mbele that I would recommend to anybody willing to learn something about a culture that is different from theirs. Since Tanzania is my home country, I'd ask anybody planning to travel to Tanzania, or anybody unsure on what to do when in a different culture to buy this book. To order your copy, simply click on the book's image and you will be taken to lulu.com where you can purchase it. Prof. Mbele writes this: This book discusses differences between African and American culture, to help prevent cultural miscommunications which might poison or ruin relationships between Africans and Americans. I am lucky to have lived in both Africa and America, and I feel privileged and obliged to share my views and experiences with others. Kiswahili Wikipedia Competition 11/18/2009
Kiswahili Wikipedia Challenge, sponsored by Google You are invited to take part in this challenge to create Wikipedia articles in Kiswahili. We hope to make the online experience richer and more relevant for 100 million African users who speak Kiswahili. You've never created a Wikipedia article before? No problem. We will have training available at the start of the competition. The articles you create will be attributed to you, which will earn you instant and lasting online fame, and prizes will be given away to the winners who qualify. You could win a mobile phone, netbook or even a laptop. Other prizes include wireless Internet modems and wearable Google gear. All participants who meet the set criteria will receive a certificate of participation from Google for your efforts. Sign up to make a difference, have fun, and win some cool prizes. Register now! (click here)! What is the Kiswahili Wikipedia Challenge? This is your opportunity to bring Africa's information online by creating Wikipedia articles in Kiswahili. You can participate by translating English Wikipedia articles into Kiswahili or by writing your own articles from scratch. You can choose your own topic to write about. Are you a pursuing a degree in Physics? Translate the entry for 'condensed matter' from English to Kiswahili. Studying literature? Write an entry on your favorite local author. Or translate an article about your favorite musician or sports team. Just think about what topics would be of interest to some of the 100 million Kiswahili speakers worldwide. Eligibility The Kiswahili Wikipedia Challenge is open to students enrolled in participating schools and individuals who are passionate about the Kiswahili language. For full details of eligibility, please see the official rulee (click here to read them). How will it work as a participant? You will be either creating original Wikipedia articles in Kiswahili or translating existing Wikipedia articles from English to Kiswahili. If you're creating a new article, you will do so via Wikipedia.org’s entry tools. If you're translating articles from English to Kiswahili, you will use Google Translator Toolkit, which integrates with Wikipedia so that you can upload your new article from there. Once you register, you will receive information on the venue and time for a one-day training. The training will include how to create Wikipedia articles with the help of the Google Translator Toolkit as well as general overview of Wikipedia. All articles submitted will be reviewed by Kiswahili Wikipedia Jury members who will assess the quality of your article and assign a 'point' per article. Winners and Prizes Winners of the prizes will be determined by a point system taking into consideration the number of articles submitted and the quality of the articles. We will also award prizes to the second place participants and runners up. Prizes includes laptops, mobile phones, prepaid internet access modems, Google T-shirts, and more. Participants will also receive certificate of participation. Training Dates November 21, 2009 Saturday November 22, 2009 Sunday Contest Dates November 25, 2009 - January 15, 2010 Interim Prize Winners Announced December 14, 2009 January 4, 2010 Final Prize Winners Announced January 29, 2010 Please contact kiswahili-wiki@googlegroups.com if you have any questions. http://www.google.com/events/kiswahili-wiki Kiswahili kinachanja mbuga na kukua na kukubalika katika ulimwengu wa lugha kwa sasa. Katika kukua huko, watu wamekuwa wakidaka maneno na kuyatumia kadiri watakavyo. Wengine wamekuwa wakitafuta maana halisi toka kwa wazungumzaji asili wa lugha hiyo, il hali wengine wamekuwa wakichukua neno na kulitumia kutokana na urahisi wa kulitamka au usikivu masikioni. Hili kundi la pili hili ndilo limenigusa posti ya leo baada ya kukutana na habari inayozungumzia kuhusu 'ulanguzi.com'. Kama kawaida ya udadisi, huwa tunataka kujua hiyo ulanguzi.com inajishughulisha na nini hasa ukizingatia maana halisi ya neno, 'ulanguzi' ni kuuza bidhaa kwa gharama isiyo halali, udokozi, kutumia ujanja -hasa katika biashara- ili kujipatia fedha kubwa nk. (in English ULANGUZI is the Swahili word literally meaning to take advantage of, black-marketing, speculation, profiteering, conjecture etc) Matarajio yalikuwa iwe ni tovuti inayojishughulisha na maana halisi ya neno lenyewe, hasa ukizingatia kuwa wahusika wametoa maana ya neno 'ulanguzi' kuwa linatokana na neno la Kiswahili. Maana ya neno lile si sahihi kwa walivyoitamka wao. Tizama picha iliyoambatanishwa hapo ujionee walichoandika. Naam, Kiswahili kinachanja mbuga, lakini lazima tafsiri ya maneno yake iendane na tafsiri halisi tunayoifahamu sisi Waswahili na si watu wakurupuke tu kubandika tafsiri wanazozijua wao ili mbeleni huko waje wakaipotoshe jamii kuhusu maana halisi ya neno lenyewe.  Jifunze KiSwahili . Learn Swahili 11/07/2009
 What is Swahili? Swahili is a bantu language, lingua franca of East African countries (Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is a national or an official language of the East Africa. It is the only language of African origin among the official languages of the African Union. Swahili is the first language to more than 2 million people and a second language to some 60 millions. Modern Swahili is usually written in the Latin alphabet, though the literature dates back to the early 18th century in Arabic script. Swahili has loanwords from many languages including Portuguese, English and a lot from Arabic. List of some useful links to websites that can help you learn KiSwahili:
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