i wound up teaching them everything, actually. Including how to read in Swahili.
but, to answer your question, Tanzania has two national languages: Swahili and English. Unfortunately, English is only the language of the highly educated and successful...to get anywhere significant in life you need to speak English well. The medium of education in primary school is Swahili (lessons are taught in Swahili), and then once they get to secondary school if they can afford it, the medium of education is English. So they're learning English up until Secondary where they're expected to be fluent. As they already speak their own tribal language at home, this is a whole lot to be expected of them.
Comments 1
(The comment has been removed)
but, to answer your question, Tanzania has two national languages: Swahili and English. Unfortunately, English is only the language of the highly educated and successful...to get anywhere significant in life you need to speak English well. The medium of education in primary school is Swahili (lessons are taught in Swahili), and then once they get to secondary school if they can afford it, the medium of education is English. So they're learning English up until Secondary where they're expected to be fluent. As they already speak their own tribal language at home, this is a whole lot to be expected of them.
Long story short, they need English.
Reply
Leave a comment