When I first arrived at site, many people were very
impressed with my Setswana; I could greet people and have very brief
conversations about trivial things. I had just come off of two months of
Setswana lessons at least 4 days a week, which I am pretty sure that no one
knew and thought I just magically picked up the language as I ambled around the
village. Also although there are white people around Botswana anecdotal
evidence has shown that many do not know Setswana and thus my Setswana
greetings won over the hearts of many villagers. Now I have been in the village
for a year and if my Setswana was progressing as community members assured me
it would, I would be fluent right now. In fact my Setswana has stagnated and
although I can still greet people, make trivial conversation, as well as all of
the noises, I am no closer to fluency then when I first arrived. However, this
has not stymied people’s beliefs that I am fluent and has even gotten me
thinking that maybe I am fluent; this is until people proceed to only speak in
Setswana to me and I realize I have no idea what is going on. Perhaps I should
hit the books again, but I must admit this self-delusion has been nice
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