How do you teach your self the local languages in Ethiopia?

soli25 New member

7POSTS

11 years ago

Hi guys,

I was wondering how well you find resources if you want to teach yourself one of the local languages here.
I am working on a mobile app that will teach basic Amharic and in the future other local languages.
While working on my app, i also wanted to know what you guys, expats that visited Ethiopia and are currently residing in here , wants to see in such app. And if you used any similar apps how was the learning process for you.
My app will be free of-course and i just want to make resources available to those who want to know the Ethiopian languages and ways.

thanks

1 member reacted to this post

The Addis Ababa expat guide

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GuestPoster3325 Guest

0POSTS

11 years ago

Hi soli25,

Check out an app called fedel available on play store. Mainly teaches you the alphabet amharic.i haven't seen any word based app.

good luck

soli25 New member

7POSTS

11 years ago

I will.. thanks

aroth New member

6POSTS

11 years ago

Hello Soli25 - If you are trying to learn Amharic you might want to download one of the apps from SelamSoft.com. It has helped me quite a bit. It has both written and audio for most commonly used words. I first got it for Windows and was able to transfer it to my Android phone. I think that their site now has an app for iPhone also. You can just google English to Amharic translations to find several different apps that will help. Memrise.com has an app for memorizing words in Amharic but the app chooses the words not you. It is good for embedding certain words in your memory but SelamSoft can help you find the words needed to get through a conversation that you might be having. These will help you learn to speak Amharic but if you want to be able to read or write Amharic it is quite a bit more complicated. The Amharic alphabet has something like 360 characters so good luck with that. I opted to just speak the language not read or write it. If you are wishing to communicate in some of the languages of the indigenous tribes then you will find next to nothing to help you with that. To give you an example, I am involved with and live with the Hamar tribe of the south Omo Valley. I only found two Hamar words on any of the language sites on the internet. I believe that I am the first one to translate that language into English since it has never been a written language, only verbal. I have translated about 3000 Hamar words into English and the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Ethiopia have come to me for my list of words. I am not an anthropologist nor a linguist, just a grandfather from the state of Utah in the U.S. that fell in love with the Hamar people and I am still working on the grammar part of this. I can make myself understood but their sentence structure is so much different from English that I still struggle a bit. Best of luck to you, I hope that you can come to love Ethiopia as much as I do!!