Saturday, April 25, 2009

(Mis)Communication

One of the challenges common to virtually all Peace Corps Volunteers all over the world is learning to communicate effectively with the people of one's host community. I say 'host community' and not 'host country' because, as is the case for PCVs throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa and many other areas of the world, even if you attain fluency in the language of your host community, it's possible that you could walk to a neighboring village and struggle to even inquire about the location of the nearest toilet. In The Gambia, for instance, where I would find myself today if not for a rare bout of bronchitis, one could leave for a morning bike ride from one's Serahule-speaking village and return before dinner having ridden through nearby villages each speaking a different language, such as Jola, Wolof, or Mandinka--some as dissimilar from one another as Polish and Italian.

In comparison, I am rather linguistically fortunate here in South Africa. While the country may have eleven official languages, many of them are closely related and fall into a patchwork pattern across the country roughly following the lines of the nine provinces. For instance, my host province of Limpopo is home to a vast majority of South Africa's Sepedi-speaking people. In the far-northern areas of Limpopo, one will find the majority of the country's Venda-speaking people, and in the far eastern area, near the border with Mozambique, is the home of the majority of the Tsonga-speakers.

For a visual representation, see Wikipedia's entry on South African languages here. As there are no cities on the maps, the best I can do to give you an idea of where I am is to link you to this map of my district, Capricorn, and say that I'm in the little 'arm' in the southeastern part of the district--in the heart of the Sepedi (aka Northern Sotho)-speaking area, represented in pink in the language map. The big 'take-away' from the language map is that with the exception of Gauteng province (aka Johannesburg and Pretoria) and, to a lesser extent, Mpumalanga province most languages are confined to distinct, continguous areas. Thus, I don't have to worry about riding my (non-existent, at this point) bike to a village that does not speak Sepedi.

One might have noticed that only one of South Africa's eleven official languages is not part of the map--English. (The unlisted brown spot just south of the southern tip of the Sepedi-speaking area is the adopted home of the Ndebele-speaking people). That's because, despite more than 3.5m people reporting speaking English at home (roughly tied for fifth with Setswana/Western-Sotho), in none of the municipalities of South Africa is English the majority or even plurality language spoken at home. In most of the cities and large towns (the term city being reserved for municipalities with populations well over 1m), English is the unofficial language of business and commerce. Even in rural villages such as mine, many educated persons and young adults/adolescents have at least a conversational grasp of English. Thus, on a daily basis, I find that I end up using English in most of my daily interactions (even if I start many conversations attempting to speak Sepedi).

While being able to interact with some of my neighbors and co-workers in English has enabled me to learn much more about my organization than would have been possible if I had to rely exclusively on Sepedi, even enabling me to get started working on a few projects, I know that doing so has several major drawbacks. Obviously, I will not learn to speak Sepedi well unless I practice it on a regular basis, and each conversation that lapses into English is another opportunity I've missed to practice. It's not been four weeks since the end of my Peace Corps language training, and I admit to being rather disappointed with my learning progress since that time.

Despite scoring very well on my language exam, I discovered upon arriving in Ga-Mathabatha that I somehow understood less of the Sepedi conversations around me than I had while among my Setswana-speaking host family during training! Needless to say, I was in for a rather rude awakening. And although I have progressed to the point where I can often pick out key words (admittedly, often cognates with English or Afrikaans) to understand the context of the conversations occurring around me, I'm still limited to very simple exchanges when attempting to converse with others in Sepedi. I have certainly disabused of the notion that I would magically absorb a foreign language simply by eavesdropping on conversations.

In general, the biggest challenge for me with communicating in Sepedi is understanding what others are saying to me. Although I try to be conscious of the fact that English is often the second, third, or seventh language of the person with whom I'm speaking, and therefore speak slowly, enunciate, and rephrase when not understood, rarely am I afforded the same treatment. While many here are rather shocked when I, a lekgowa (white person), greet them in their own language, the expectation is that someone who is capable of the simple tasks of greeting and commenting on the weather must be fluent. That I am incapable of understanding someone's rapid-fire response is a constant source of disappointment both to the person with whom I'm speaking and to me.

Although often frustrating, I'm doing my best to treat the situation as a lesson in humility and patience. I know that the first three months at site are among the most difficult of one's more than two years of Peace Corps service. So as long as I keep my spirits up and persist in trying to learn as much as possible, I know that I still have a lot of time to learn the skills I'll need to my community in the 23 months I have left here in Ga-Mathabatha.

Go lokile! (All's well!)

No comments: