Course

Bua Setswana Course

This course is aimed at beginners who want to learn to speak Setswana. The course aims to help students achieve a basic mastery of Setswana to allow them to communicate their basic needs and serve as a foundation on which to build their language skills.

It is strongly recommended that the student learns by speaking with Batswana speakers at the earliest opportunity.

Lessons

• Lesson 1 greetings, useful phrases
• Lesson 2 introducing yourself, verbs – present tense, "to have"
• Lesson 3 location, nouns –ng
• Lesson 4 noun classes plus practice
• Lesson 5 past tense
• Lesson 6 verb objects, conjunctives (joining words)
• Lesson 7 possessives
• Lesson 8 verbs - future tense, past continuous
• Lesson 9 numbers, time, days of week
• Lesson 10 human body, tribes
• Lesson 11 adjectives, "to be"
• Lesson 12 comparatives, shopping
• Lesson 13 adverbs, relative
• Lesson 14 kinship terms
• Lesson 15 demonstratives, imperative
• Lesson 16 getting around
• Lesson 17 climate

Reference/Revision Material

• Noun class summary table
• Verb tenses summary
• work related vocabulary

External Teaching Material

• Booklet "First Steps in Spoken Setswana" published by Pula Press 1978
• CD "Learn Setswana" from Eurotalk This is really just a lot of vocabulary much of which has little relevance to life in Botswana. However you can at least listen to Setswana speakers pronouncing the words.

Dictionaries

• Shuters Compact Setswana Dictionary (Shuter & Shooter) ISBN 0-7960-0639-3 Includes both singular and plural forms of nouns (eg "motho" and "batho") to assist learners. For "South African" Setswana rather than "Botswana" Setswana.