A for Effort...

Bougiethiopia has a very unique language, Amharic. As previously mentioned, almost no one else in the world speaks this language which, you know, can be cool. If exclusivity is your thing. I am trying to learn Amharic and have enlisted the help of an Amharic tutor. We meet 1-2 times a week and we're starting from the basics. I got greetings and numbers right now.

I have to say: Ethiopia is one of the countries where I feel like people are really encouraging even when you know only a few words. Like literally, anything beyond hello and thank you are very much smiled upon. When I drop a "Have a good day" or "Good morning" on someone, they're like "oh, you're learning so fast"...I don't know how long it really takes to learn "good morning" but I guess, given that you have to say it differently for men, women, and groups of multiples, maybe it is an accomplishment. I've been taking notes from almost all of the drivers, who have taught me some of the numbers, greetings, how to tell someone what I want, etc. They all know now that I am trying to learn so on our rides from the Embassy, I get a 15-20 minute lesson in Amharic. I definitely appreciate the lessons and honestly, the genuine excitement about my effort. I just came from dinner and outside of them rushing me to eat because they were closing, when I told the waitress "Have a good evening", she responded with the same and asked if I spoke Amharic (in Amharic). I told her a little bit (in Amharic) and she said something else and that she would be my teacher. Of course, we didn't exchange numbers or anything but it makes my heart smile when people are excited not only that I'm trying to learn the language but WANT to teach me. One of the drivers, of course I can't remember his name, stopped me in the hall the other day and straight quizzed me on the numbers (because that's what he had taught me). It warms the cockles of my heart (to steal from BS). :)