Braek Glass

INCASE OF EMER-
GENCY...

If English were the third language you learned growing up, your spelling could be much worse than that.

As an American living overseas for the first time in the early 90s, I quickly learned that most people know more than one language. Most Kenyans living in Nairobi know at least three languages: their mother tongue, Kiswahili and English.

Things are changing in the big city. Kids do not know the mother tongue of their mothers. Or fathers. My co-worker Sam is from a different tribe than his wife. He wishes his daughter could learn some of both her mother's tongue and her father's tongue. But he knows this probably won't happen. She's doing great at Swahili, at just 15 months old.

Heather has been making some effort to learn Swahili. It would be really helpful for me to know more, in my job. Ironically, in light of my job responsibilities, I cannot take the time out of work to learn. I guess if I were highly motivated, I would find some time outside of work to learn. I have not yet found that motivation.