When we arrived in Nigeria, we were given 1 hour of language training in Hausa, which included being told to go out onto the streets outside the hotel and practise using the few phrases we had learnt. I can tell you, the few men we managed to find on the streets were pretty bemused at being asked if they were hungry and whether they had a wife!
Since then, I have been trying to pick up the language here and there. I can manage greetings (which are pretty lengthy here), pleasantries and using transport, but anything beyond is more tricky. There are several people who have vowed to teach us, and who are indeed trying, but mainly this consists of them gabbling complicated Hausa sentences at us and then laughing when we don't understand. Then they translate it for us, but it's often difficult to get them to break it down into component parts, so we end up just learning whole sentences by rote which we will almost certainly never need to use (take, for example, "You and your wife have the same complexion." Certainly it would often be true, but why would I ever want to say it?!).
Another challenge, is that a lot of dialogue here seems to be simply stating a fact about what is occurring. For example, "You came". Or "You're working". Or "You're eating bananas early in the morning" (really, someone said this to me). This, to me, doesn't require much response, aside from maybe "Yes". But when I respond in that way, they translate as if I didn't understand - what are they expecting me to say?! I'm toying with the idea of learning the Hausa for 'No, I'm still at home', so that I can at least respond to "You came?" with irony.
Since then, I have been trying to pick up the language here and there. I can manage greetings (which are pretty lengthy here), pleasantries and using transport, but anything beyond is more tricky. There are several people who have vowed to teach us, and who are indeed trying, but mainly this consists of them gabbling complicated Hausa sentences at us and then laughing when we don't understand. Then they translate it for us, but it's often difficult to get them to break it down into component parts, so we end up just learning whole sentences by rote which we will almost certainly never need to use (take, for example, "You and your wife have the same complexion." Certainly it would often be true, but why would I ever want to say it?!).
Another challenge, is that a lot of dialogue here seems to be simply stating a fact about what is occurring. For example, "You came". Or "You're working". Or "You're eating bananas early in the morning" (really, someone said this to me). This, to me, doesn't require much response, aside from maybe "Yes". But when I respond in that way, they translate as if I didn't understand - what are they expecting me to say?! I'm toying with the idea of learning the Hausa for 'No, I'm still at home', so that I can at least respond to "You came?" with irony.
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