Language

Malagasy 101
-All verbs begins with the letter M
-For past tense, replace the first letter M with N
-For future tense, replace the first letter M with H
-Most nouns begin with F and have an extra NA at the end of the verb

Verb: Mahalalala
Past tense: Nahalalala
Future tense: Hahalalala
Noun: Fahalalalana

This makes a lot of words sound similar which is super confusing for the non-native speaker.
Ex. 1 ‘Bevohoka’ (pregnant) and ‘be vovoka’ (lots of dust). This was more confusing in the CSB setting.
Ex. 2 ‘Mikakakaka’ (to laugh hysterically) and ‘mikaka’ (to poop). Also super confusing.

So I speak Malagasy only, all day every day at my site. I’m slowly getting better but I still speak broken Malagasy. However, few people actually correct my language mistakes so I often don’t know if I’m saying something incorrectly. It’s also frustrating when I’m trying to tell a story and don’t know the key word in Malagasy in the story. Then on the flip side, I often can’t understand the main word in a sentence or question that someone is asking me. I’ll say ‘tsy mazava’ (I don’t understand/it’s not clear), then the person will repeat the exact same sentence very slowly and yelling. I still can’t understand the words you’re saying even when you speak louder. It was also difficult to learn my role in the CSB and understand the paperwork (which some is in Malagasy but mostly in French) and not knowing how to ask my questions in Malagasy.

Despite these frustrations I often hear, ‘Mahay miteny ‘Gasy ianao!’ (You can speak ‘Gasy!) or ‘efa mahay ianao!’ (You already know [Malagasy]). I modestly say, ‘mahay kelikely aho sy mbola mila mianatra!’ (I know a little and still need to study!’ from which I’m always reassured. The Malagasy are very encouraging. Also, I have attained a relatively high level of Malagasy considering the short time I’ve been in country. I took French for 6 years in middle school, high school, and college and I still knew more Malagasy by the end of 2 months of training than French. However, while I can speak conversational Malagasy, I lack vocabulary which is really just memorization and usage. This is where I can fall back on French (many Malagasy are fluent in French- the school and hospital systems are all in French) and I’m surprised with the French vocabulary I do remember (I whipped out the French word for ruler the other day. Seriously, I could remember ‘regle’ but I couldn’t remember how to factor when studying for the GRE!?’ However, since many Malagasy are fluent and speak French to me (often with me unsure which language they are speaking). My French is so poor that I tell them I don’t know any.

Many people have requested English lessons from me. I plan to start an English club in August, and if the number of people who have asked me for lessons show up, I will easily be teaching over 100 people. There are two people in particular who come to my house 1-2 times per week to ask me English questions. One is a teacher who wants to learn English well enough to teach it in the schools. They already know English pretty well and it’s always nice to give my brain a break from Malagasy. They are reading a high school science book making their English questions hard! I have to try and explain words like ‘fossil fuels’ in a mixture of English and Malagasy. They are also reading an English book and have questions regarding phrases such as ‘I am crushed,’ or ‘street punk.’ Also difficult to explain in my limited Malagasy.

But really, I enjoy speaking Malagasy because I never thought I would be fluent (using that word loosely) in another language. I watched ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ the other week with some other volunteers. At one point the main character is in Italy and her friend orders a coffee in impressive Italian while claiming she’s only been learning for 6 weeks. We all completely scoffed at how much Italian she knew so easily. But then again, maybe that’s how we sound to people who can’t speak any Malagasy?

You know you’re a PCV when:
-You’re not sure which language you just spoke, ‘Was that Malagasy, French…or Spanish?’
-Your English is gradually getting worse.