Today is my 227th day learning Swahili on Duolingo. By the time this article goes up, I will be on my 234th day โ€“ only 16 days away from my next milestone. I wish I could say that after spending this much time learning a new language on the app, I can speak fluently but that would be a lie. The truth is, after my first 100 days, my learning has plateaued.

I feel like I learned so much in the first 70 days and now, Iโ€™m not really learning anything new. Yet, I cannot speak fluently and Iโ€™m not sure what the next phase should be. Moving to Nairobi has not helped so far because almost everyone I have encountered speaks English. So, โ€˜learning by immersionโ€™ โ€“ at least a variation of it โ€“ isnโ€™t really working out well for me at the moment.

When we first arrived in Nairobi, we forced ourselves to speak Swahili to everyone we met. Weโ€™d try to have small conversations with people around us but over time, that got repetitive and boring. It also doesnโ€™t help that our practice pool is small since weโ€™re not interacting with many people due to the pandemic.

If Iโ€™m being honest, attaining fluency in Swahili has been more difficult than I anticipated. I was under the impression that it was fairly easy to learn. But listening to Swahili based radio stations and actually listening to people speak has been a rude awakening. Kenyaโ€™s Swahili is also full of slangs โ€“ sort of like pidgin English, so the struggle has been real.

Learning Swahili โ€“ Our Language Experiment

Last month, in an effort to push ourselves to speak faster, Mark and I decided to only communicate in Swahili during weekdays. It was difficult, to say the least, and we gave up after only 1 week. I liked the experiment though so I think we might give it another go. Mark learned to speak French fluently in Benin and this was one of the ways he did it.

Learning Swahili โ€“ Why I am Still Learning on Duolingo

Learning Swahili on Duolingo

Well, simply speaking, I love maintaining my streak. Iโ€™m aware that I will not attain fluency using Duolingo alone but Iโ€™m glad I have something to keep me on my toes. So far, I have learned (but not mastered) 2,112 words on Duolingo. Itโ€™s true that they add new words even after you have completed the skill tree. The Swahili course is also being updated periodically which is great. Iโ€™m certainly looking forward to having โ€˜Swahili Storiesโ€™ featured soon.

Learning Swahili โ€“ Other Things Iโ€™m Trying

In my last post about my learning journey, myafrikanah suggested a few tips and resources. One of them was the Mimic Method by Idahosa Ness. I checked out some of his videos on YouTube and a particular one I watched talked about advancing your learning process by memorizing scripted conversations. This was something I started doing earlier but didnโ€™t feel like it was very helpful, so it was great to hear an expert endorse it.

Over the next few weeks, Iโ€™ll focus on relearning words, trying out the memorized scripted conversations and getting our language experiment back on track. I am also still using the resources I talked about in the last post to boost my learning process:

I hope Iโ€™ll have a better progress report learning Swahili by Day 300!

Tips for learning a new language for travel

Are you also learning a new language? Please share your experience and progress with me in the comment section below. Also, Iโ€™m still on the lookout for great Swahili audiobooks. Please send any recommendations you have my way.

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