I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really want to be transformed into a four legged braying work animal but I have recently learned<\/a> that there is Hausa<\/a> phrase for foreigners who are fluent in Hausa; this being, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ya iya Hausa kamar jakin Kano<\/a><\/strong><\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which literatly translates to “he speaks Hausa like a Kano donkey<\/em>.<\/strong>” Owing to the fact that ever since my arrival in Abuja I have on numerous occasions (at least six times in one day!) been addressed\/spoken to in Hausa by many who have mistakenly identified me as a Hausa speaking Fulani<\/a> woman I have decided to learn Hausa.<\/p>\n

The security guard at work has kindly agreed to teach me a phrase a day. It is going well and I am further encouraged by two things. Firstly, there is no greater honour that can be extended to a visitor than treating him\/her as if he\/she was not a visitor. The least I can do to show my gratitude is to take steps to integrate with the people of my host nation and though there are over 200 hundred languages spoken in Nigeria I should not let this deter me from learning at least one before I leave. Secondly it has been brought to my attention that there are Hausa words that are similar to those that I am already familiar with as a result of my knowledge of (dare I say fluency in) Kiswahili. I feel like the battle is half won so why not go all the way? <\/p>\n

So for anyone else who wants to join me in quest to become a Kano donkey; here is a list of English words with their Hausa and Kiswahili translations and who knows maybe there shall be an all Hausa blog soon<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n
• Twenty = Ashirin<\/em> (Hausa<\/strong>); Ishirini<\/em> (Kiswahili<\/strong>) <\/li>\n
• Thirty = Talatin<\/em> (Hausa<\/strong>); Thelathini<\/em> (Kiswahili<\/strong>) <\/li>\n
• Forty = Arbain<\/em> (Hausa<\/strong>); Arbaini<\/em> (Kiswahili<\/strong>) <\/li>\n
• Fifty = Hamsin<\/em> (Hausa<\/strong>); Hamsini<\/em> (Kiswahili<\/strong>) <\/li>\n
• Sixty= Sittin<\/em> (Hausa<\/strong>); Sitini<\/em> (Kiswahili<\/strong>) <\/li>\n
• Thursday = Alhamis<\/em> (Hausa<\/strong>); Alhamisi<\/em> (Kiswahili<\/strong>) <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  *Learn to count<\/a> and days of the week<\/a> in Hausa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really want to be transformed into a four legged braying work animal but I have recently learned that there is Hausa phrase for foreigners who are fluent in Hausa; this being, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ya iya Hausa kamar jakin Kano\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which literatly translates to “he speaks Hausa like a Kano donkey.” Owing to the fact that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,19,22],"tags":[89,90,91],"class_list":{"0":"post-329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa","7":"category-kenya","8":"category-nigeria","9":"tag-africa","10":"tag-kenya","11":"tag-nigeria","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Y7Vr-5j","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371,"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions\/371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}