Setswana for Beginners

Introduction to Setswana

This is an introductory course to the Setswana language spoken in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. The course content is aimed for beginners who have no background on the language. The first section helps learners get familiar with the sounds and the alphabet. The Setswana language has strong sounds which I encourage learners to practice in this section. Furthermore, the overall structure of the language and grammar rules are introduced. The second section discusses important conversation starters such as greeting and introducing yourself. This section is the most important of the course. Students who master the conversation starters will be able to have a basic conversation in Setswana, which is the ultimate aim. The last section aims to expand your vocabulary looking at various topics; family and the weather. The exercises include in this course are useful in order to make sure that students have retained the information from the lectures. In the second section, one of the goals is to have a clear understanding of the pronouns. The course does not go into detail with grammatical explanations as the main aim of the course is to focus on the conversational aspect. I do cover important grammar rules that will help with overall understanding of the language.