Peace Corps Maasai Language Lessons

COURSE OVERVIEW
The curriculum is divided into topic areas based on the immediate needs of PCVs from their arrival in the host country and initial meetings with host country nationals to settling into housing, shopping in local markets, working in schools and dealing with emergency
situations.

To compliment the emphasis of communicative ability, this manual in its format flows from a series of dialogues (that are translated) to vocabulary lists (for review of the vocabulary used in the dialogues) to grammar explanation, to exercises for comprehension check and knowledge of grammar. Last but not least cultural explanation
to integrate the culture into the language. There is also a self-evaluation part for the learner to assess his new progress in learning and to give feedback to the trainer.

Topics are ordered based on the most common needs of a Learner. Some topics are spiralled, that is, they are re-introduced at various points in the curriculum. For example a volunteer learns the vocabulary of food to use at the table with his host family in the first food topic. Food is then introduced again in the context of shopping for food in the host country and finally food is studied in a restaurant context.

This manual is divided into three sections. The first section deals with survival and social skills competencies all covered in nineteen lessons. The 2nd section deals specifically with Technical Competencies for the volunteer job assignment and finally the grammar chart that summarizes the Maasai Grammar just in a single page.

PROGRAMS THAT USED THIS LANGUAGE
Kenya: 1964-present
Tanzania: 1961-1969; 1979-present

PROGRAM SECTORS
Kenya: Education, Health, Community Economic Development
Tanzania: Education, Environment, Health

Maasai is an Eastern Nilotic language spoken in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania by the Maasai people, numbering about 800,000. It is closely related to the other Maa varieties Samburu (or Sampur), the language of the Samburu people of central Kenya, Chamus, spoken south and southeast of Lake Baringo (sometimes regarded as a dialect of Samburu); and Parakuyu of Tanzania. The Maasai, Samburu, il-Chamus and Parakuyu peoples are historically related and all refer to their language as l Maa.

Maasai is spoken in: Kenya, Tanzania

Maasai is also called: Kimaasai, Lumbwa, Maa, Masai