Greetings

Aug 5, 2010 –

Hello.

Hello, how are you? 

I am fine, how are you? 

I am also fine. 

The first day Intro in almost any language course.  And here in Kenya is no exception.  This is a exchange we get several times a day and a annoying number of times if we walk into town.

The fun thing is that I don’t think most of the people actually understand what they are saying.  It was just rotely memorized, or they picked it up from others.  So my side of the conversation doesn’t really matter, the response from the locals is the same.  I hardly every ask how they are, probably because I do not know this person and I don’t care how they are, but if I say anything, and even if I don’t, I get the ‘I am also fine’.

The best are the ones that have a little understanding of it, or at least recognized that my response is ‘correct’. Often I’ll say something that is not relevant, such as Mississippi, or Awful, or Music Man.  Then watch in enjoyment as they shutdown for a moment in a blank stare and you can just see they mind going into overload processing what I just said.

From Mbita,

Paul