Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
John: Hi everyone, and welcome back to SwahiliPod101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 7 - Accepting an Invitation in Swahili. John Here.
Medina: Hamjambo, I'm Medina.
John: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to accept or decline an invitation. The conversation takes place on a train.
Medina: It's between Musa and Rehema.
John: The speakers are strangers, so they will use formal Swahili. Okay, let's listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Musa: Habari yako msichana?
Rehema: Mzuri sana.
Musa: Ningependa tujuane zaidi ukikubali mualiko wangu. Kesho yako iko vipi?
Rehema: Sina kazi nyingi sana.
Musa: Kwa hivyo tunaweza enda matembezi?
Rehema: Ndio. Asante kwa mualiko wako.
Musa: Haya basi.
John: Listen to the conversation one time slowly.
Musa: Habari yako msichana?
Rehema: Mzuri sana.
Musa: Ningependa tujuane zaidi ukikubali mualiko wangu. Kesho yako iko vipi?
Rehema: Sina kazi nyingi sana.
Musa: Kwa hivyo tunaweza enda matembezi?
Rehema: Ndio. Asante kwa mualiko wako.
Musa: Haya basi.
John: Listen to the conversation with the English translation
Musa: How are you girl?
Rehema: Very fine.
Musa: I would like to get to know you more, so please accept my invitation. How about tomorrow?
Rehema: I am not very busy.
Musa: So we can go for a walk?
Rehema: Yes. Thank you for your invitation.
Musa: Okay then.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
John: Medina, are invitations important in Kenya?
Medina: Yes, as a normal part of social life. When you receive one, it is very important to accept it!
John: But what if you can’t accept for reasons that don’t depend on you?
Medina: If you’re going to decline it, you have to do so in a very polite manner because of the culture. When an invitation is extended, the person has the right to accept or reject it.
John: How do you say “to accept an invitation” in Swahili?
Medina: kubali mualiko
John: Okay, now onto the vocab.
VOCAB LIST
John: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is..
Medina: msichana [natural native speed]
John: girl
Medina: msichana[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Medina: msichana [natural native speed]
John: Next we have..
Medina: juana [natural native speed]
John: to know each other
Medina: juana[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Medina: juana [natural native speed]
John: Next we have..
Medina: mualiko [natural native speed]
John: invitation
Medina: mualiko[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Medina: mualiko [natural native speed]
John: Next we have..
Medina: kubali [natural native speed]
John: to accept
Medina: kubali[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Medina: kubali [natural native speed]
John: Next we have..
Medina: kazi [natural native speed]
John: job, work, career
Medina: kazi[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Medina: kazi [natural native speed]
John: And last...
Medina: matembezi [natural native speed]
John: walk
Medina: matembezi[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Medina: matembezi [natural native speed]
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
John: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is..
Medina: juana zaidi
John: meaning "to know each other more"
Medina: Juana, a verb meaning "to know each other," is made up of jua meaning “to know,” and -na meaning “each other.” zaidi means "more."
John: You mostly use this phrase in informal settings, during courtship or dating, when you want to get to know more about your partner. Medina, can you give us an example using this phrase?
Medina: Sure. For example, you can say.. Ningetamani tujuane zaidi.
John: ..which means "I would like us to know each other more." Okay, what's the next phrase?
Medina: kwenda matembezi
John: meaning "To go for a walk."
Medina: Kwenda is a verb meaning "to go" and matembezi is a noun meaning "walk."
John: You use it when you want to take a walk somewhere. Could you give us a sample sentence?
Medina: Sure. For example, you can say.. Tulienda matembezi mpaka mtoni.
John: .. which means "We took a walk to the river." Okay, now onto the lesson focus.

Lesson focus

John: In this lesson, you'll learn how to accept or reject an invitation. First, let’s look at how to offer an invitation. Is there an example in the dialogue?
Medina: Ningetaka tujuane zaidi ukikubali mualiko wangu. Kesho yako iko vipi?
John: “I would like to get to know you more, so please accept my invitation. How about tomorrow?”
Medina: When inviting people somewhere, you must use polite words so you get positive results. For example, words like ningetaka, meaning ”I would like,” are found at the start of almost every conversation.
John: These words are very polite and will help to get the other person’s attention.
Medina: When you’re inviting your peers somewhere, you can be informal. But when you’re inviting someone older, especially an elder, you have to use a more formal approach.
John: Can you give us some examples?
Medina: Ningependa kukualika katika harusi yangu.
John: “I would like to invite you to my wedding.”
Medina: Here is another example – Babu, ningetaka kukualika katika karamu yangu. Itakua tarehe nne mwezi wanne.
John: “Grandpa, I would like to invite you to my wedding. It will be on the fourth of April.“
Medina: Ningetaka kukualika nyumbani kwetu kesho.
John: “I would like to invite you to our home tomorrow.” Ok, now let’s take a look at how to accept or decline an invitation.
Medina: In the dialogue we have an example of how to accept, that is Ndio, asante kwa mualiko wako.
John: ...meaning “Yes, thank you for your invitation”
Medina: When you want to accept an invitation, you must first start with the acceptance ndio meaning ”yes,” then thank the person with Asante or ”thank you.”
John: What about declining an invitation?
Medina: Declining an invitation is also not very difficult. You say “I cannot,” which is siwezi, then go ahead to state a reason you will not attend.
John: As we already said, it is very important to be polite.
Medina: Right. Remember that when you’re declining or accepting an invitation, you use future tense, which you can recognize from the infix -ta-
John: Let’s give some examples of how to decline an invitation.
Medina: Sitaweza kuja kwako leo, nina kazi nyingi sana.
John: This means “I cannot come to your place today, I have a lot of work.”
Medina: Sitaweza kuja kwenu leo, naenda mjini.
John: “I will not come to your place today, I’m going to town.” Ok, let’s say that the invited person accepted – how can we go ahead to set up the appointment?
Medina: You should be accurate about the time and place, so be sure to learn the time-related vocabulary.
John: Okay, let’s list some of these.
Medina: Wikendi
John: “Weekend”
Medina: Asubuhi
John: “in the morning”
Medina: Adhuhuri
John: “in the afternoon.” Listeners, you can find a complete list in the lesson notes. What about vocabulary related to the place?
Medina: you can usually recognize them from the suffix -ni.
John: Can you give us some examples?
Medina: Uwanjani
John: “in the field”
Medina: Ofisini
John: “in the office”
Medina: Jijini
John: “in town.” Okay, to wrap up the lesson, let’s give some sample sentences that will be useful when setting up details for an appointment.
Medina: Okay. Twaweza enda kucheza uwanjani kesho?
John: “Can we go play in the field tomorrow?”
Medina: Twaweza enda na wewe ofisini kesho?
John: ”Can we go to the office tomorrow?”
Medina: Ningependa twende mbugani la wanyama Jumamosi.
John: ”I would like us to go to the animal park on Saturday.”

Outro

John: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye!
Medina: Tuonane!

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