- I have studied Latin and Norwegian. I know how to learn a language at least if I am in a classroom with other people and a teacher. Studying by yourself in the basement with a textbook and Rosetta Stone is a different matter. First of all, Swahili is a made-up language. About half is from Bantu with borrowed words from English and other languages and a big chunk is Arabic. I don't think they picked the best of each language.
My experience so far has been with languages that have two types of nouns. Swahili has six types with the singular and plural forms being handled differently in each noun type. Adjectives have to match the noun form. Verb conjugations are the stuff nightmares are made of. First, second, and third person are indicated by prefixes as is the tense. Then if the verb is expressed as a negative, you don't use a word like "not." You indicate person and sometimes tense in a whole different way. Words borrowed from English tend to be easier. Words are spelled phonetically and end with a vowel. "Suit" becomes "suti" and "socks" become "soksi." Then for no apparent reason, "slacks" translates into "surali ndefu." There are no silent letters so you do pronounce both the n and the d as n-day-fu.
What I am told is that it all clicks after a couple of months. In the meantime, my basement floor is slippery from all the pulled-out hair.
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