Speaking Kinyarwanda in Rwanda

It is widely agreed that speaking Kinyarwanda is essential for a successful integration in Rwanda. Do you agree? Yes this is true! Kinyarwanda is virtually spoken everywhere even in public and private offices.   I think its commendable on how proud Rwandans are on their language and have fought tirelessly to ensure this is kept that way.  In national curriculum, the language is taught from the lowest primary level to the high school.  In fact, its is now the sole language of instruction in the first 4 years of primary school, because UNESCO recommended that young kids learn better in the mother tongue first couple of years of school.  My experience is if you are an African generally its pretty easy to pick it up as its similar to lots of African dialects.  It's easy to pick it up because it's widely used for the most common day interactions eg markets, shops, taking taxis, motos etc.

Do you speak Kinyarwanda? If so, where did you learn this language? Where can one attend a language course in Rwanda? Yes I speak the language passably well, although I can't write it.  I learned it from everyday interactions, took me 2 years to understand it well enough, 4-5 years to be comfortable to hold a good conversation with a rwandan.  Of coz 5 mins into the conversation and the accent gives me away.  But Rwandans really appreciate people who talk to them in Kinyarwanda, sort of even bonds you right away with them.  (Possibly because they can't talk behind your back about you, something surprisingly done a lot..)

If not, how do you cope with daily activities? Is it easy to communicate in a different language with Rwandans? Its become easier to communicate with Rwandans if you don't know the language.  The younger group (below 45 years) are very open to English, French or Swahili.  The older rural folks (40 and below) are quite difficult to talk to if you don't know the language with the exception of town folks who will grudgingly accept to talk Swahili.