Barrack I tend to believe Moses estimates of 90%. There was a project I was doing in many of these rural areas and villages and the reality is, people in the villages dont speak fluent Kiswahili. My Kiswahili totally sucks but I was able to tell that their Kiswahili was also wrong. Another thing in many of the villages they are most comfortable with their native tongues. I also found out with the younger generations even in the villages they have just as good English skills as kiswahili if not better. Why? They pick it from watching a lot of bootlegged DVDs which have TV series and movies. But one thing you have got to admit, in Kenya we generally do not speak fluent Swahili. That brings m to another point. Why cant Kenya come up with their own version of Kiswahili? For example look at Australian English vs British or American English. The same goes for portuguese. The Brazilian portugues has many variations from the Portugal portugues and the trend is all over. Kenya is trying to force itself to get up to speed with the traditional standard Kiswahili yet envirmental factors are pointing in a different direction. Kenya has a chance to invent a unique flavor of Kiswahili and call it her own. Why wasnt sheng pushed as a constitutionally recognized official language? Just My thoughts, I dont know much about sheng either. Steve ----- "Barrack Otieno" <otieno.barrack@gmail.com> wrote:
90 percent of Kenyans? I beg to differ maybe Nairobians, let google be, why is Kiswahili recognised by our constitution as a national language, better still how will the rest of the country close to fifteen million benefit? This is the reason we are talking about Kenyans for Kenyans we need equal opportunities for all , those who have been involved in ICT sensitization activities mashinani appreciate what google is doing. Localization is key to bridging the digital divide.
My two Cassavas :-)
On 8/10/11, moses njuguna <moses.w.n@gmail.com> wrote:
ATT to Google kenya techies, Can you Kindly take google default back to English..This business of figuring out what "Wavuti", "Mpangilio wa zana" , "iliyo kwa kache" MEANS is Driving us NUTS..Or better still take the Default to the local slang/sheng, otherwise 90% of kenyans dont understand Kiswahili Sanifu..
-- Sent from my mobile device
Barrack O. Otieno Afriregister Ltd (Kenya) www.afrire <http://www.afriregister.com>gister.bi, www.afriregister.com<http://www.afriergister.com> <http://www.afriregister.com>ICANN accredited registrar +254721325277 +254-20-2498789 Skype: barrack.otieno _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke