There are times when words fail me, English escapes me and leaves and I am left with images in my head. I work for a Japanese company and there has always been a desire for me to communicate at some level with my friends from Japan in their own tongue. So, over the last few years I have been learning little bits a pieces of the Japanese language that I use from time to time.
When I was traveling in Tanzania, I had the same motivation to learn a little Swahili to be able to thank the people I photographed and to greet people during the day.
The funny thing was, when I went to speak in Swahili, often Japanese came out. I got some very funny looks from people and at some points during the trip it froze me completely from speaking at all, because I was unsure what was going to come out.
Here are some words to look at, there tone and rhythm are very similar in my mind.
Asante sana = Thank you very Much (Swahili)
Arigatou gozaimasu = Thank you very much (Japanese)
Samahani = Excuse me / pardon me (swahili)
Sumimasen = Excuse me / pardon me (Japanese)
I think I will stick with English for now.