A howdoyousay Post for Various African Languages
Hello everyone!
I'm taking a rather lengthy trip through East and Southern Africa as well as Ghana this summer, and I've been dabbling in photography for a while. On this trip, I'd like to take photos of people, too, but I'm not a fan of just snapping away without asking people for permission first, so there are a few phrases I hope you can help me with.
This is the approximate route I'm taking:
I don't know which languages will be the most useful there, aside from English and Swahili, so anything you can tell me will be great, even if just what languages I should find phrasebooks for. As for Ghana, I'm mostly interested in Twi and perhaps Hausa, I think? And the type of phrases I'm interested in are the following:
a) First, some kind of greeting, and I'd like to ask the people how they are, how their family is, their name, what they're doing, things like that. I took a few weeks of Swahili a while ago, so I know that much emphasis some cultures put on greetings and asking how people are. (That said, I have no idea how to say anything in Swahili anymore.)
b) Ideally, I'd like to be able to answer the same questions, should people ask.
c) The actual question(s), 'May I take a photo of you / your child / your children / your family?'
d) 'Thank you very much' (in case they say yes), and something like 'too bad, but thank you' (in case they say no).
e) A way to ask them to 'stand over here / there, please'.
f) Maybe an equivalent of 'cheese!' or some other way to warn them that I'm about to take the photo.
g) 'Would you like to see?' when I show them the photo(s).
h) A way to wish them a wonderful day.
i) And lastly, anything along the lines of 'I'm sorry, I don't understand, I only speak a little [language]' would be great.
...as well as anything else I might be forgetting.
I realise I most likely won't be able to learn all of those things in several languages, but I'll try my best. Which is why transliterations would be great, as well as pronunciation help. I think I should still be able to pronounce Swahili, but that's about it. (If it helps, I know my way around IPA, and have a few years of both Germanic and Romance languages under my belt, so you can just tell me 'this is pronounced like the Italian V', for example.) I was also told it might be good to write the sentences down and just point at them if people can't understand what I'm saying. Does anyone think that's a good idea?
Oh and last but not least, I need any answers you can give me by the end of next week because that's when I leave. Thankyou so much!
I'm taking a rather lengthy trip through East and Southern Africa as well as Ghana this summer, and I've been dabbling in photography for a while. On this trip, I'd like to take photos of people, too, but I'm not a fan of just snapping away without asking people for permission first, so there are a few phrases I hope you can help me with.
This is the approximate route I'm taking:
I don't know which languages will be the most useful there, aside from English and Swahili, so anything you can tell me will be great, even if just what languages I should find phrasebooks for. As for Ghana, I'm mostly interested in Twi and perhaps Hausa, I think? And the type of phrases I'm interested in are the following:
a) First, some kind of greeting, and I'd like to ask the people how they are, how their family is, their name, what they're doing, things like that. I took a few weeks of Swahili a while ago, so I know that much emphasis some cultures put on greetings and asking how people are. (That said, I have no idea how to say anything in Swahili anymore.)
b) Ideally, I'd like to be able to answer the same questions, should people ask.
c) The actual question(s), 'May I take a photo of you / your child / your children / your family?'
d) 'Thank you very much' (in case they say yes), and something like 'too bad, but thank you' (in case they say no).
e) A way to ask them to 'stand over here / there, please'.
f) Maybe an equivalent of 'cheese!' or some other way to warn them that I'm about to take the photo.
g) 'Would you like to see?' when I show them the photo(s).
h) A way to wish them a wonderful day.
i) And lastly, anything along the lines of 'I'm sorry, I don't understand, I only speak a little [language]' would be great.
...as well as anything else I might be forgetting.
I realise I most likely won't be able to learn all of those things in several languages, but I'll try my best. Which is why transliterations would be great, as well as pronunciation help. I think I should still be able to pronounce Swahili, but that's about it. (If it helps, I know my way around IPA, and have a few years of both Germanic and Romance languages under my belt, so you can just tell me 'this is pronounced like the Italian V', for example.) I was also told it might be good to write the sentences down and just point at them if people can't understand what I'm saying. Does anyone think that's a good idea?
Oh and last but not least, I need any answers you can give me by the end of next week because that's when I leave. Thankyou so much!