How to Learn Sesotho
Helele! That's "hello" in Sesotho, also known as Southern Sotho, the national language of Lesotho and one of the 11 official languages of South Africa. Although setting out to learn Sesotho means venturing into challenging pronunciation and grammatical territory for most English-speakers, there are lots of resources available. Here are some tips to help you learn Sesotho. O amohelehile! ("You're welcome!")
- Difficulty:
- Moderately Challenging
Instructions
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Learn from CDs. Because Sesotho, like many languages in the Bantu family from which it comes, includes lots of clicks and trills, just reading words in a book won't help. You need to hear the language spoken. Start with a program like EuroTalk's Interactive Learn Sesotho CD-ROM, which introduces you to Sesotho's 39 consonant sounds, 9 vowel combinations and a grammar that has no distinctions for gender.
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Study formally. Yale and Boston University are among US schools whose African Languages departments offer courses in Sesotho. You can also find many Sesotho language programs in Lesotho and South Africa, where you have the advantage of being able to learn from and practice with native speakers.
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Visit online Sesotho sites like SesothoWeb.com, which offers language tutorials, cultural links to literature in the language and a searchable and downloadable English-Sesotho dictionary. The African Languages page of TravLang.com will link you to common Sesotho words and phrases for tourists, with sound files for pronunciation.
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Listen to radio in Sesotho. Lesedi FM broadcasts on the web in Sesotho, with an English-language portal. Along with hearing Sesotho spoken and sung, you'll get the added advantage of hearing cutting-edge African popular music styles like Kwaito, which relies on an invented youth-culture idiomatic language called Tsotsitaal, rooted in Sesotho.
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Blog about Sesotho. The On Sesotho blog is a forum for those interested in learning to speak and learning more about Sesotho.
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