Maaha (pr. Maa-ha) - Good Afternoon!
Now that I have almost lost the Obroni tag; I am now looking to have more than the basic Twi in my repertoire of languages.
I started Twi lessons again this morning. Our group was meant to use the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre, but we have now moved to a different venue. We're a small group of eight with a Twi teacher determined to have us writing theses in Twi before the year is out. Who said slave driver?
I guess there is no other way to imbue a sense of importance in the learning of a foreign language than to drill it in and drill it in hard. Two hours after our very first lesson I was ready to head out to Makola Market and start negotiating with the ladies there (well not quite) - then I got home, greeted my housekeeper and told her, in what I thought was my best Twi, that I was going to the shops and she burst out laughing. It must have been the attitude with which it was said that caught her off-guard because she sometimes responds, admittedly reluctantly, probably wishing I would shut up and stop grating at her ears with my poor pronunciation, but this time she just could not help herself.
The W.E.B Du Bois Centre offers Saturday morning classes of Twi at the moment. The other option is the University of Ghana (Legon) - Institute of Languages. The only disadvantage with this option is it will be in a more formalised (and serious) environment, so not as much fun. There are also private one-on-one options - which was an option I looked into at one point - probably offering even more flexibility, but without the interactive element provided by other students.
When reviewing your options, be sure you go with the more popular language of your region, so if heading north of the country, Ga, which is the most widely-spoken language in the Greater Accra region may not be as useful as Twi, Ewe or Hausa. There are nine official languages in Ghana (excluding english). These are the government-sponsored languages, meaning they were the languages used in primary education in the past, before English made it onto the official list, but literary material is still being printed in them. Although Twi is one of the more widely spoken languages in Ghana, it is in fact, along with Fante a dialect of the Akan language.
Perhaps, there is still a bit of Obroni in me, if the reaction to my attempts of phrasing are anything to go by, but I assure you that I do not chew my fufu with a spoon.
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