I was recently asked if Vai has a good grasp of English.
Vai has been in New Zealand for seven years and her story will appear one of these days.
To answer the question about her her ability to speak English, I relate it first to my experience, because I spent seven years in Tanzania speaking Swahili.
A linguistic expert told me that you are fluent in a language if you can hold a conversation for two minutes. I was able to conduct an environmental seminar for two or three hours, talk to a mechanic about a vehicle, organize water projects, talk to builders to build schools or houses or water tanks, even negotiate prices from general shopping to large item building/plumbing materials.
But if I was to join a conversation about say, politics or web design; I would be inept. Learning a language you get used to the vocabulary used in your field and it takes a longer time to pick up other words.
The other thing is that the vowel sounds I am used to are different to those of Swahili. Swahili vowel sounds are the same as Maori and probably more languages use those sounds.
I remember very early on Joshia used the botanical name Grevillea robusta, a name that I knew well, but did not recognize it because of the different sound. This is accent and took me just a short while to become used to it.
Because I worked with rural government schools and helped (financially) several young people through secondary school, as well as coaching three Makumira Secondary School students, I do have some knowledge of education in Tanzania. I do not want to be disparaging but some of what I say here will be surprising to some.
First it is important to understand that with slight seasonal variation darkness settles in at 7:00pm and daylight 7:00am. Most rural Tanzanian homes do not have electricity and many cannot afford artificial light - candles and kerosene. This means kids are unable to read at night or do their school homework. This puts rural students at a severe disadvantage.
There has been a shortage of school teachers and 'pressure cooker' schemes put less well trained teachers into the workforce. The more remote areas are places less desirable to live, therefore more difficult to recruit quality teachers. And then the desirable areas are well endowed with teachers.
The example of Makumira Primary School, close to the Theological College - now University - where wives of lecturers become teachers. The Mratibu education coordinator of the area has the power of reporting on teachers and recommends which teachers should be moved to other schools. Some Mratibu become very well dressed and put on weight!
English is taught as a subject in primary schools and in secondary schools teach all subjects in English (except Kiswahili) which is why the pass rate is low and private schools have better outcomes.
Primary school teachers pass on poor English to students, the commonest is adding a vowel - i or e - to most nouns. In the class situation primary and secondary teachers write the lesson on the blackboard making errors in tabulation (copying from a text book) and the student then copy those errors and (because usually through time pressures) they make their own errors of tabulation. Oh and it often happens that students copy from other student's books, there are more errors of tabulation.
Upendo was struggling with Agriculture, so I translated her whole book back into Swahili! For me, the Agriculture subject is bread and butter so was easy, but her exercise book was so full of errors that makes it no surprise that students fail.
There is a national examination at the end of primary school - Std VII - the passing of which means a seat in a government secondary school. Students are asked to nominate their preferred school - some have better reputations than others and some are distant, have hostels and other benefits and cost some families a great amount of money!
Upendo had her identity (seat in secondary school) stolen, and some sell their seat to a richer person who does not want their seat for whatever reason.
Those failing are able to gain a place in a private school, with higher fees, and the more affluent are able to find a place in the very good private schools allowing lower passed students a place in the government schools.
In the past there have not been enough places in government schools for all the students who qualify, and the place is given to the higher achiever.
As time goes on, all of these things are improving because of funding injections from various sources.
Vai has been in New Zealand for seven years and her story will appear one of these days.
To answer the question about her her ability to speak English, I relate it first to my experience, because I spent seven years in Tanzania speaking Swahili.
A linguistic expert told me that you are fluent in a language if you can hold a conversation for two minutes. I was able to conduct an environmental seminar for two or three hours, talk to a mechanic about a vehicle, organize water projects, talk to builders to build schools or houses or water tanks, even negotiate prices from general shopping to large item building/plumbing materials.
But if I was to join a conversation about say, politics or web design; I would be inept. Learning a language you get used to the vocabulary used in your field and it takes a longer time to pick up other words.
The other thing is that the vowel sounds I am used to are different to those of Swahili. Swahili vowel sounds are the same as Maori and probably more languages use those sounds.
I remember very early on Joshia used the botanical name Grevillea robusta, a name that I knew well, but did not recognize it because of the different sound. This is accent and took me just a short while to become used to it.
Because I worked with rural government schools and helped (financially) several young people through secondary school, as well as coaching three Makumira Secondary School students, I do have some knowledge of education in Tanzania. I do not want to be disparaging but some of what I say here will be surprising to some.
First it is important to understand that with slight seasonal variation darkness settles in at 7:00pm and daylight 7:00am. Most rural Tanzanian homes do not have electricity and many cannot afford artificial light - candles and kerosene. This means kids are unable to read at night or do their school homework. This puts rural students at a severe disadvantage.
There has been a shortage of school teachers and 'pressure cooker' schemes put less well trained teachers into the workforce. The more remote areas are places less desirable to live, therefore more difficult to recruit quality teachers. And then the desirable areas are well endowed with teachers.
The example of Makumira Primary School, close to the Theological College - now University - where wives of lecturers become teachers. The Mratibu education coordinator of the area has the power of reporting on teachers and recommends which teachers should be moved to other schools. Some Mratibu become very well dressed and put on weight!
English is taught as a subject in primary schools and in secondary schools teach all subjects in English (except Kiswahili) which is why the pass rate is low and private schools have better outcomes.
Primary school teachers pass on poor English to students, the commonest is adding a vowel - i or e - to most nouns. In the class situation primary and secondary teachers write the lesson on the blackboard making errors in tabulation (copying from a text book) and the student then copy those errors and (because usually through time pressures) they make their own errors of tabulation. Oh and it often happens that students copy from other student's books, there are more errors of tabulation.
Upendo was struggling with Agriculture, so I translated her whole book back into Swahili! For me, the Agriculture subject is bread and butter so was easy, but her exercise book was so full of errors that makes it no surprise that students fail.
There is a national examination at the end of primary school - Std VII - the passing of which means a seat in a government secondary school. Students are asked to nominate their preferred school - some have better reputations than others and some are distant, have hostels and other benefits and cost some families a great amount of money!
Upendo had her identity (seat in secondary school) stolen, and some sell their seat to a richer person who does not want their seat for whatever reason.
Those failing are able to gain a place in a private school, with higher fees, and the more affluent are able to find a place in the very good private schools allowing lower passed students a place in the government schools.
In the past there have not been enough places in government schools for all the students who qualify, and the place is given to the higher achiever.
As time goes on, all of these things are improving because of funding injections from various sources.
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