Why after 18 years i still dont master Dangme?
I have been married to a native speaker of Dangme for 18 years, 10 of wich i’ve been living in Ghana, where said language is spoken. So why is it that I’m still at the beginner stage?
Behold, my vast list of excuses
I’m a Finn but I learnt English in school and by the time I met my husband i was reasonably “fluent” (very debatable term) through exposure to English language media (Finns generally consume very high amounts of media in English). I also sang in church choir led by an American lady, I had English language penpalls, read books in English and found the magical world of the internet. And then I joined an English language church because I was invited by some lovely Nigerians I met randomly on the street. So summa summarum, I was already pretty strong in English when I met my husband to be. He hadn’t learnt Finnish at that time and naturally we communicated in English. Later he did learn Finnish but English remained our common language and it always felt weird trying to speak any other language together. So I never had this big need to learn Dangme. Yeah I really wanted to (and tried to) but it never bothered our relationship that I didn’t.
2. Not living in Dangme land
Even when we moved to Ghana we didn’t actually live in an area where Dangme was the majority language. So I would hear Dangme mostly only if my husband called his parents or if we travelled to see my in-laws which happened like twice a year.
When I began my language learning there was very few materials. I managed to get a hold of a small tourist vocabulary which was very badly done and not very helpful. But I drilled that bad boy the best i could. I also asked my husband a lot of questions but he doesn’t have a very good attitude to my language learn quest and is sort of irritated when I ask him. He is very busy all the time and super stressed so I don’t really feel like bothering him.
As I couldn’t find materials in Dangme I tried other languages. I tried Ashanti twi through Pimsleur, Aquapem Twi through a book and later Fante through actual face to face private lessons. I did some French too on the side because I watched SKAM France and fell in love.
1. Begin to bother people
I’m finally going to begin pushing people to speak Dangme to me. I have made friends with a handful of dangmes and they are much more in favor of my learnign endeavors than my husband. So I finally have some people to help me.
The last couple of years materials have popped up. I now have a handful of YouTube videos at my disposal and I have found a few children’s books. I have also found some academic articles about Dangme grammar. Im also now in a WhatsApp group with other people wanting to learn Dangme. That is very motivating. But the one resource I’m so exited about is a dictionary! I can now translate stuff without having to ask people about each and every word.
I’m going to but all other languages to hold. I’m even going to put my other hobbies on hold for a while. I really want to just do a really intensive period of Dangme studies for the next year or so. I’m hoping by the end of the year I would be at a level where I can hopefully learn more passively (like through just reading Bible in Dangme and through natural conversations. ) After I have become strong enough in Dangme I want to bring back the other languages one by one but keep maintaining Dangme. I really hope this works out.
