It Came With Boat; Even The Fish Did Not Catch

"Kizungu ilikuja na meli na ata samaki hawakushika!" (English came with boat and even the fish did not catch!) - Kenyan saying.

In a country where Swahili is the national language, learning English is quite a journey. Although the education system in our country uses English as the teaching language, it's never easy. Reading and writing it is not a problem but speaking it, that's where the brain draws the line.

There's this time in primary school when our English teacher came to give us our composition results and was left with a few in his hand that he said he'd read aloud. Mine was among the chosen few. I was feeling like a champ when he got to mine until he read a phrase, "He carried a small tummy in his hands". The way the teacher laughed at that made me wish to put my hand over his mouth, and shut him up. I had prided myself to learning a new word, tummy, and thought it was another word for briefcase. Dear English, whyyy?

But lately it has been better. English is comprehensible plus I indulge myself in novels to hone my literature skills. Speaking it too is cohesive. My love for reading and writing this language is unexplainable. This has made me think I have acquired a fluency in English, in an international way. But English is like, hooold up!

In the beginning of this year, I was undertaking a course online about negotiation. In that course, there's a face to face negotiation session with fellow students. You get to pair with someone taking the course. I paired with one guy, Nathaniel, a native English speaker. I had trust in my English fluency, "I'll nail it!" my mind screamed.

But when Nathaniel started speaking, I thought he was speaking French or Spanish. Words were just flying over the screen. The way I pardon_ed_ my way through the entire conversation, made me doubt our curriculum. Whenever he said something, all I could afford was, "sorry? Pardon?"

I recounted that conversation with a hood friend, and amidst the laughter, she just went, "Si nlikwambia mambo ya kizungu uache wewe? Ilikuja na meli na ata samaki hawakushika, ona sasa." (I told you to leave English alone! It came with boat and even fish did not catch; now see!)

Thank you for reading❤️.

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