James Ngundi

Tu/Th 6:30 PM-7:45 PM

This course is an introduction to the culture of the Swahili people of eastern Africa and their language, Kiswahili. We will focus on acquiring basic conversational Kiswahili through activities that enhance the four communicative skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). Through performance of cultural communicative activities and selected readings, students will gain an understanding of basic Kiswahili grammatical structures and cultural insights of the people of East Africa. They will also get an overview of the history of Kiswahili and its place in eastern Africa.  On completion of the course, students will be expected to demonstrate the ability to:  a) Use basic Kiswahili skills to successfully perform day-to-day interactions such as greetings, interpersonal conversations, and global comprehension  b) Communicate using a wide range of simple to fair Kiswahili grammatical constructions and draw upon a vocabulary of about 300 to 500 words. c) Appreciate basic cultural practices of the Swahili speaking peoples.