Hello

Today i want to talk about the variant forms of Hello. One of the common ones is 'hi.' equally well-known is the famous 'hey.'

one thing i learned in Africa is that when learning a foreign language, people tend to learn only one way to say things. This was evident in my learning of sesotho, and also applies to the basotho people who were learning english.

I will start with myself.

Though there is more than one way to say 'hello' in sesotho, the one that i learned and always used was the general 'Lumela.' I never had much variation in my speech. But think about it, that would be pretty weird if we always said 'hello' and never said 'hi' or 'hey.'

but when the basotho spoke english, they did a similar thing. they only said 'hello,' never 'hi.' but what was even more interesting was the phrase 'how are you.' when the basotho said hello, they always followed by asking, 'how are you?' but the only answer that they knew to give was 'fine and you.'

eg.
me: hello, how are you?
ntate: fine and you?

every. single. time.

i'm pretty sure that the children thought that 'fine and you' was some kind of long word--something like "fineandyou."

i had fun with it, often thinking of unique things to say. then when people asked me, 'how are you?' i could respond with unique and innovative things like, 'good,' 'great,' 'not too shabby,' 'fantastic,' 'wonderful,' 'just dandy,' 'super,' and 'totally awesome dude, thanks for asking.'

well, my responses were shocking. sometimes i was misunderstood. apparently because i did not say the usual, 'fine and you,' i was somehow sick, and had need of a doctor.

but i don't blame them for not understanding. after all, i sometimes said stupid things, both in english and sotho.

in mafikeng, when you say you are 'doing the wash' you mean that you are washing clothes. everyone washes their clothes by hand. however, when you say you are 'washing' you usually refer to bathing, or washing your body.

when we would meet people that were busy, we would try to help them with their duties, whether it was gardening, cleaning the house, washing the dishes, or whatever.

so one time, this lady told me she was busy washing. i responded, 'can i help you?' she looked really confused, so i repeated myself: 'can i help you?'

only later did i realize, i'd offered to help her bathe.

thats all for now folks...
-the Voter.