No Jambo?

We have all seen Mean Girls, right? Cady, the new girl at high school who just moved to the US from Africa, experiences culture shock and the mean arena of high school. I’m sure she was a little shocked when she said  “Jambo!” to the African American table at school and got very weird looks. Well, I’ve done that too. I was confused; how did my peers not understand me? What did I say that is so “weird”?

Now, I did not grow up in Africa, however my mother spent a couple of months out of the year for years in Nairobi, Kenya. She would bring their language back to me, along with their ways of dressing  and some ideals. It was the language that really stuck. I am by no means fluent, I only know basic words but my family and I used it in almost everyday life. I will never forget being at my elementary school one school year; I was 8 years old and I was rocking my new Nairobi Java House t-shirt my mom had just brought back for me from her most recent trip. My group of friends were sitting by the playground swings and I excitedly went up to them and without thinking anything of it I said, “Jambo!” Oh yes. Cady Heron style.

 

I (embarrassingly) had to explain to them that ‘jambo’ was Swahili for ‘hello’. My best friend Charlotte looked at me and asked, “don’t you only say that in Africa?”. No matter how much I tried to explain it, they never understood. Needless to say I never spoke a nick of Swahili unless I was with my family in a home setting. The language I used at home could not be used outside of that bubble. It did not affect me in any negative connation, but it is interesting to see that I let that one instance “prohibit” my language of the home. What about you? Have you had any similar experiences with language of the home versus language of school?