Lost in Translation

One of the luckiest things about me studying in Ghana (I had originally planned on Senegal) is that the official language here is English. Not that everyone here speaks English, or speaks it in a way that is intelligible to an outsider. Cab drivers, market women, artists, and many of the people you encounter away from the university setting will tend to speak more of a mix of incorrect English and Twi or other indigenous languages. Yet even when speaking with classmates and professors at Ashesi, (all of whom are well-educated, many of whom are also well-traveled) so many things seem to get lost. For a long time I thought my roommate was in the same year as me - it turns out she is a first-year, not a "junior" in the way I meant. I'm still under the impression that we are the same age, but who knows, that could be wrong too.


For example, the use of "please": it is interchangable with "thank you" and sometimes even "you are welcome," and it can generally be thrown into any sentence to make the language more polite and formal. "I'm coming" is also tricky - what it really means is "I am going, but I will be back," and the time frame is undetermined. (This is a common theme in Ghanaian culture - everything is always "soon" and "coming" and "close," but often these things are a long time or a far distance away.) As you can imagine, this can make for some frustrating misunderstandings.

Just like in British English, there are specific words for certain objects or concepts that are used slightly differently than they would be in the US. (I once asked a bartender for a "napkin" - he sort of frowned at me and shook his head and was like "how about a tissue?" and handed me exactly what I had asked for.) Ghanaians use "cutlery," not silverware, they "wash," they don't shower, (though perhaps this is a helpful distinction as our "shower" rarely works as such) and "chill" means the exact opposite as it does at home - "chillling" means going out to a bar or club until 2-3 am, not sitting around at home watching a movie. I figured this one out as a friend asked me incredulously why we were "chilling" the night before we had to board a bus at 7 am.

My favorite misunderstood concept would have to be "ponding." Pronounced the Ghanaian way, it sounds more like "pounding," which makes sense as a form of punishment. Turns out, the word is "ponding," as in putting someone in a pond. Yeah. Apparently it is a great source of embarassment and public punishment for the members of a certain fraternity.


The mistranslations are mostly humorous, although understanding taxi or tro-tro drivers can be a real problem. Of course the accent here is different, and what we have learned is that it often helps people understand you if you pronounce your Ts a bit more, and your Rs a bit less (as in "water" - imagine pronouncing the first half of the word like a British person, and the second half as "ah" instead of "er"). So don't be surprised if I come home speaking English a bit funny.

PHOTOS: Cape Coast Castle, the rainforest view in Kakum National Park (stolen from Netanus)