nanga def?

On language...

The most common African tribe here is the Wolof, so most people, even in Dakar are Wolof. There is a lot of cultural and linguistic significance in this. Living in a city dominated by Wolof means that EVERYONE speaks Wolof as their first and primary language. My family speaks Wolof to each other, the people on the street speak Wolof, my professors speak Wolof when they talk to each other, etc. This is a little overwhelming when I only speak English and French. But most (and by most I mean everyone except maybe super duper poor people), speak French as well. And then a select few speak English as well. So the order of language from most common to least is Wolof, French, English...As one of my classes, I am learning to speak Wolof. It's kind of difficult because it's way different from English and French and Spanish, in that there's no real grammatical structure. And there is no set spelling. It's all oral. Which, for some one who learns visually, like me, is difficult to catch on to. So far we've gotten through basic greetings and such. So seeing someone on the street, your conversation might go something like this...

-Salaam aleikum (this is just your basic muslim greeting...)
--Malekum salaam (...and response)
-Nanga def? (~How are you?)
--Mangi fi rekk (~I am well)

and so on and so on. Who knows, maybe when I get back home I'll be trilingual! (this is merely my optimism shining through the extreme difficulty of learning the language)

It is like being tossed into the deep end when I have a hard enough time trying to get by with my french and then being immersed in a completely different language as well...woah baby, talk about linguistic overload.