Last week I traveled by bus to attend our group’s yearly business meetings. The first bus went 5 ½ hours and
that was the end of that route. I had to hike a few blocks over to the big bus station and find a bus
to take me to on, another 3 ½ hours away (by bus. In a private car it only takes 2 hours!) The bus I got on there was traveling to my destination, but it was not its last stop.
So when we arrived most people were staying on the bus. I had to get up and climb over the big plastic
jugs in the aisle and make my way to the door which was blocked with young
girls trying to sell drinks and trays of snacks to all the people staying on
the bus. I was happy to use my Bambara language,
so I announced in Bambara “I want to go out” hoping that the girls would move
and let me go out. A man next to the
door looked at me and asked “huh?” so I
repeated “I want to go out” as I pointed
at the door. He seemed to understand
then and he had the girls move so I could climb down the steps.
The next day I was sitting and chatting with some of the ladies at our mission base who were preparing food for that evening’s meal. One of them noticed something peculiar on the ground under a nearby chair. In Bambara, she asked another woman “is that poop?” It looked like poop, and because there are plenty of animals roaming around as well as small children that may or may not wear some kind of diaper, it wouldn’t be that surprising if it was in fact poop. One of the women investigated and it was only the inside seed part of a cucumber that someone had scooped out and it was now covered in brown dirt. Hearing the word “poop” in Bambara several times suddenly brought the incident in the bus to mind. I had a sinking feeling that I might not have said what I wanted to say.
In Bambara I am sometimes confused or frustrated because a single word can have A LOT meanings. Sometimes words are actually a little different but I have a hard time keeping it straight if it’s a high tone word or a low tone word, and there are 2 kinds of O’s, there is regular O and there is an open O which is written like a backwards C. They sound a little different, but I admit I don’t pay much attention to that and I just hope people will figure out what I mean by the context.
So here is the tricky part and why I was suddenly worried that I had made an embarrassing mistake: The way to say “go out” (as in “I want to go out”) is “bo”, and the way to say “poop” is also “bo” but with a closed O. Did I announce in the bus that “I want to poop” as I gestured toward the door? Obviously I would want to get out of the bus if I wanted to go poop, so I don’t think context would help me too much there.
I went and found a friend who does a lot of translation work, and asked him what I really said. He said that a better word choice might have been “jigin” which is “to come down/descend” and is understood as meaning getting off a bus. But I was relieved when he explained that what I said was understandable and that to say “I want to poop” I would have needed to add a “ke” at the end, which is like “to do poop.” So it wasn’t so bad after all, but I was pretty worried there for a minute!
The next day I was sitting and chatting with some of the ladies at our mission base who were preparing food for that evening’s meal. One of them noticed something peculiar on the ground under a nearby chair. In Bambara, she asked another woman “is that poop?” It looked like poop, and because there are plenty of animals roaming around as well as small children that may or may not wear some kind of diaper, it wouldn’t be that surprising if it was in fact poop. One of the women investigated and it was only the inside seed part of a cucumber that someone had scooped out and it was now covered in brown dirt. Hearing the word “poop” in Bambara several times suddenly brought the incident in the bus to mind. I had a sinking feeling that I might not have said what I wanted to say.
In Bambara I am sometimes confused or frustrated because a single word can have A LOT meanings. Sometimes words are actually a little different but I have a hard time keeping it straight if it’s a high tone word or a low tone word, and there are 2 kinds of O’s, there is regular O and there is an open O which is written like a backwards C. They sound a little different, but I admit I don’t pay much attention to that and I just hope people will figure out what I mean by the context.
So here is the tricky part and why I was suddenly worried that I had made an embarrassing mistake: The way to say “go out” (as in “I want to go out”) is “bo”, and the way to say “poop” is also “bo” but with a closed O. Did I announce in the bus that “I want to poop” as I gestured toward the door? Obviously I would want to get out of the bus if I wanted to go poop, so I don’t think context would help me too much there.
I went and found a friend who does a lot of translation work, and asked him what I really said. He said that a better word choice might have been “jigin” which is “to come down/descend” and is understood as meaning getting off a bus. But I was relieved when he explained that what I said was understandable and that to say “I want to poop” I would have needed to add a “ke” at the end, which is like “to do poop.” So it wasn’t so bad after all, but I was pretty worried there for a minute!
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| a shot from inside the bus |
Good story! :D
ReplyDeleteyou are so funny Erin!
ReplyDeletelanguage learning..so humbling! Great story!
ReplyDeleteOh, my, I knew what was coming as soon as you mentioned the word poop!
ReplyDeleteJennifer