bejeka
on Fantastic Voyage (Nigeria), 20/Sep/2010 13:28, 34 days ago
I think all conversations are like dancing.There’s usually a leader, and there’s a rhythm, and there are probably some set steps from which you can deviate if you want to, but then you usually look like a fool. There’s also a melody in the background – some patterns which eddy and flow in and out of different interactions with different people.This is probably why I find them, mostly, terribly difficult– particularly with people I don’t know very well.There’s a kind of gauche-ness, like Bambi tumbling head over heels while trying to maintain eye contact, or like when I get on and off the buses here armed with a motorbike helmet, a bag, and probably some money in my sweaty fist.It’s just clumsy and embarrassing for all concerned.There are some people, of course, with whom I fall into an easy rhythm– we trot through some well-known classic steps, and then maybe improvise a little, experimenting with different leaders with a melody we both know and are probably nostalgic about muttering away somewhere in a back room.Mostly these are people I’ve known for a long time, and with whom – no matter how rarely we communicate (I’m an appalling correspondent) – conversation feels more like Zoe Ball, and less like John Sergeant.All of these (negative and positive) feelings are doubled up and strengthened with bands of iron,innan ond utan, when it comes to new languages through which I stumble, faltering forward, self-esteem around me falling.But here (though, obviously, I retain all of these profound concerns), there’s a beautifully set pattern to almost any conversation that I’m likely to be seriously expected to hold in Hausa.And that’s because greetings are the lifeblood of social interaction here: if you can cope with them, you’re perceived as pretty sharp with the language.And the rhythm, melody, and steps are absolutely set in stone: whatever anybody asks, the answer islafiya(fine)– or, if you’re chirpy, want a little variation, or actually are feeling fine about it,lafiya lau(really fine).When you see someone for the first time in the day, one of you takes the lead (this remains tricky, particularly as it can swap midway through).And it’s just a brilliant string of incredibly specific questions: how was your night / body / rain / home / family / children / tiredness / wife / waking up / work / road?Every so often, someone teaches us a new one: we become more advanced in the skills of greeting.Between proper Hausa speakers, the questions are just rattled through: a kind of ritual dance before the real business begins (in which you might reveal that, actually, you feel horribly unwell and you had a dreadful night, as I did when speaking to the doctor).It’s kind of a regular social affirmation, knowing your place and status and establishing a key level of communication, and I guess creating a platform of commonality and a ‘fine’ environment from which whatever needs to happen next can take place.Most importantly, it’s an absolute gift to a bad language learner: not so much basic communication skills as a duologue script.