Akwaaba!

One of the most common words we’ve been hearing is “Akwaaba,” which means “Welcome,” in the Akan languages. Many Ghanaians, and basically all educated Ghanaians, speak very good English. This is because English is the official language for schooling and government functions. There are also a wide variety of Akan tribal and regional languages. These languages are very commonly spoken between Ghanaians, but it’s been pretty hard for me to pick up too much. However, there have been some pretty cool language interactions. One of the coolest parts of these languages is the naming process.

Each Ghanaians has a different name based on their gender and the day of the week they were born on. For example, I am a male born on a Friday, so my first name is “Kofi.” Additionally, each person has a last name based on the order of birth in their family. In my case, my last name is “Mensah.” So I’ve been able to have a pretty fun time running around Ghana telling people my name is Kofi Mensah. There are also other interesting manifestations of this language. We’ve learned that “Thank you,” is “Meda Se,” but every time we try to say that it gets a few chuckles from the native speakers. The locals normally are quick to revert to English since they recognize that will make the conversation smooth in two ways.

Even in English there are some funny quirks and misunderstandings. For example, instead of saying “Welcome” when greeting a group of students, our lecturers generally say “You are welcome.” I personally like the ring this greeting has. In some other cases, there can be confusing mismatches in communication. In Kumasi, we learned that if someone orders a burger, they should not expect there to be a beef patty in the middle. This was a bit frustrating for the first time since two patties, lettuce, cheese, and tomato showed up without any actual burger. But travelling isn’t travelling without a few miscommunications.