Why am I trying to learn 22 Somali vocabulary words every day? Click here.
Just a few more days until a huge new adventure, and waan ku faraxsanahay! To celebrate (and since these words will soon be quite relevant), I’m going to focus today on travel-related vocabulary!
Today’s List:
- bus = bas
- motorcycle = mooto
- airplane = diyaarad
- boat = doon
- train = tareen
- suitcase = shando
- bag = boorso
- visa = fiisaha
- passport = baasaboor
- trip/journey = safar
- road = waddo
- bridge = buundo
- village = tuulo
- town/city = magaalada
- region = gobol
- country = dal
- ticket = tigidh
- long = dheer
- short = gabaan
- far = fog
- near = dhow
- here = halkan
Today’s Study Method
Oh no, it’s day four, and I’m already feeling lazy! I think that’s a part of doing such a long challenge, though — every day can’t be flashy and complicated and beautiful. Some days, you’ve just got to put in some elbow grease and get the job done.
One of my favourite vocab-learning methods for these lazy days is the list. You write all the English words in a list, and then write the Somali next to it. Then, fold over the English, and re-write the English words next to the Somali. Repeat over and over, until it’s ingrained into your memory.
The Verdict
When I started today, I thought this method was just the lazy version of flashcards. However, I think this method actually works your brain in ways that flashcards don’t. For me, flashcards work really well for speed, word recognition, and “whole-word” knowledge (ie. less of a focus on the specifics of how the word is spelled, as long as you can say what the word is). Having to write out each word multiple times really helped me pay attention to the spellings. While spelling isn’t completely standardised in Somali, you still have to write words in recognisable ways, and so spelling still matters. You can’t just write anything however you want.
All in all, success! Day 4, in the bag! 88 words down!
