5 Day Lingala Challenge.

So I said I was going to do a little African language challenge when I got back to the UK, and so here it is.

I spent 5 full days learning Lingala. Unfortunately, since Lingala is a small language spoken by about 12 million people in the DRC, Congo, CAR and Angola, there aren't many resources for it.

The way I learnt was by reading the FSI Lingala course and watching the Lingala Institute videos. Everyday I studied both of them hard (the FSI course more than the YT course). I wrote major grammar structures down to help me remember them, and also a lot of vocabulary.

After 5 days I wrote an email in Lingala to a native speaker, and she replied with corrections on a few instances of incorrect grammar, some outdated vocab (the FSI course was written in the 1960s), and some words that aren't used at all anymore (in favor of French).

Overall, I was quite proud of my progress after only a few days, so I wanted to share it. So yesterday I decided to make a video of me speaking the little Lingala essay. I wrote some notes, so that I wouldn't mumble and take forever to say it (I'm not good on camera), and filmed it on my laptop webcam.

I apologise for the quality, and the lighting. I filmed it at about 10pm, after I had been to the Red Bull Air Race (which was awesome).

 

So there you go. 5 day Lingala challenge complete. I am not going to do anymore Lingala. For a few reasons. Firstly, if I was going to learn Lingala properly I would get a teacher, and I can't afford one right now. Secondly, I started to learn French maybe two days ago, and I am finding it much easier. So I am going to stick with French.