Welcome to our Swahili page, featuring courses, books, and software for Swahili. If you have any questions or can't find what you need, please e-mail us.
Multilingual Books FSI Swahili Basic Course Swahili is spoken in Kenya and Tanganyika, and throughout East Africa. This course is designed to assist students in speaking and understanding Swahili, and provide a basis for continuing to greater efficiency in reading and writing skills. 24 Tapes, 560 page book. And now, for a limited time you can save $50 on any FSI course level priced over $100! Just use promo code MB-F52-825 when ordering to receive this special. $299 More information for FSI courses...
Swahili Basic CD Course Swahili is spoken in Kenya and Tanganyika, and throughout East Africa. This course is designed to assist students in speaking and understanding Swahili, and provide a basis for continuing to greater efficiency in reading and writing skills. 18 CDs (21 hrs.), 586-page text $289
Pimsleur Swahili Compact Course This is a state-of-the-art language learning course for spoken Swahili. The popular Pimsleur course does not use a book but uses a completely aural approach to language learning, perfect for learning "on-the-go". Features a proficiency-based system that helps the student learn through listening and speaking practice. Includes 5 CDs. CD version $115 Click for pricing and more information...
Pimsleur Bookchip for Compact Swahili Bookchips are compact digital memory cards that can hold five, ten, fifteen hours of spoken audio or more. A single Bookchip - not much larger than a postage stamp - can hold entire audiobooks that would traditionally require a half-dozen to a dozen compact discs or cassettes. Bookchips work on many desktop computers, laptops, other handheld PDA devices and mobile Smartphones with SD memory card slots. Bookchips move seamlessly from device to device, remembering your listening position each time. With Bookchips, it's easy to pick up from where you left off the day before, or skip to any chapter you like. Not only do Bookchips hold hours and hours of high-quality digital audio, they are rugged and reliable. Bookchips are completely electronic, and can be played by devices without any spinning or moving parts - which means Bookchips never skip! Bookchips are much easier to travel or exercise with than cassette or compact discs... and lighter, too. The Bookchip contains the Pimsleur Swahili Compact course, with 10 lessons, normally on 5 CDs. $75 More about Pimsleur Bookchips...
iofy Audio Player The iofy Player is back and better than ever. With new enhanced features it delivers the same reliable performance of the original in a sleek new design. Easy to use, the iofy Player is designed specifically for audiobook chips, such as the Pimsleur Bookchip. This intelligent device is the only audiobook chip player on the market today that automatically bookmarks your listening position! Unlike cassettes or CDs, just one audiobook chip can hold 5, 10, 15 hours or more of reading material, and plays without spinning parts that might break or cause skipping when you're on the go. With an iofy player, you can "zip" downloaded audiobooks to chips and listen to them anywhere - while you're driving, exercising, or just relaxing. Alternatively, you can buy premade chips, or you can put your own music or other MP3 content on a chip and listen to that as well. The iofy player comes with Earphones and two AAA batteries. With a 16GB SD Memory Card (not included), it holds up to 2400 hours of spoken audio, or 3840 songs in 128-Kbps MP3 format. Supports Content on SD card, MMC-ROM, MMC Flash, Mini-SD, and Micro-SD (requires adaptor). Skip-free playback; Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz; MP3 (8 to 192 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Speex; One step MP3-CD to chip conversion; CEA 2003 compliant; MPV compliant. $49 More about the iofy Audio Player...
Kiswahili Language & Culture: A Textbook for the Teaching of Kiswahili with Video Lioba J. Moshi This twenty-three lesson course is designed to be used in conjunction with the video series of the same name for use by students at any proficiency: elementary, intermediate, and advanced. The major themes in both the video and the book include: Familia 'the family', Elimu 'education', Kilimo 'agriculture', Masoko 'markets', Vyakula na Mapishi 'foods and food preparation (cooking) ', Biashara 'trade', Destruri za Arusi 'wedding and marriage customs', Karibu Tanzania 'welcome to Tanzania', Kujistarehesha 'recreational activities', Afya 'health issues (both modern and traditional health practices) ', Mila na Utamaduni 'traditional and cultural activities', Sanna 'arts and crafts', Desturi za Dini 'religious practives', Historia 'historical aspects', and Siasa 'political events'. For each unit in each of the lessons, there is a reading text and essential vocabulary items. Grammar and cultural notes, written in English, are provided. 1998, 427 pages, hardbound. $118
Teach Yourself Swahili Joan Russell For this volume of the popular Teach Yourself series, Joan Russell has created a practical course in spoken and written Swahili that is both fun and easy to work through. Based on the Council of Europe's Threshold guidelines on language learning, the course contains 18 graded units of dialogues, culture notes, grammar, and exercises; a pronunciation guide; and Swahili-English and English-Swahili vocabularies. Includes a book and two CDs. $35.95
Swahili for Starters: A Practical Introductory Course By Joan Maw, University of London, published by Oxford University Press. This book teaches Swahili in its social and cultural context. It introduces the language in a natural manner, beginning with real-life situations in dialogue form, many of which also reveal African cultural attitudes and societal ideas to the reader. Grammar and vocabulary are introduced gradually, along with necessary pronunciation guides. $75
Elementary Swahili Newspaper Reader Agnes Musyoki, John D. Murphy Twenty readings in this volume provide the elementary student of Swahili with a broad selection of newspaper articles together with the necessary lexical and grammatical aids. The subject matter covers a variety of fields, including discussions of political, economic, military, and human interest topics. With three 90 min. audio cassette recordings of the articles read by a native speaker. 1985, 201 pages, hardbound. Book and 3 cassettes $134
Intermediate Swahili Newspaper Reader John B. K. Rutayuga, John D. Murphy Twenty readings in this volume provide the intermediate student of Swahili with a broad selection of newspaper articles together with the necessary lexical and grammatical aids. The subject matter covers a variety of fields, including discussions of political, economic, military, and human interest topics. With four 90 min. audio cassette recordings of the articles read by a native speaker. 1984, 259 pages, hardbound. Book and 4 cassettes $145
Swahili-English / English-Swahili Practical Dictionary Nicholas Awde Swahili is the most important language of East Africa. Apart from being the offical language of both Tanzania and Kenya, it is also spoken in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Zaire. Over 20,000 entries make up this bilingual dictionary of Swahili and English words. 500 pp, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 paperback, 134,000 entries. $19.95
Rosetta Stone CD-ROM Language Course for Swahili The Rosetta Stone intensive courses assume no prior knowledge of a foreign language and will take the student through the equivalent of a year's college study, teaching both the spoken and written foreign language. Unlike learning in language classrooms, Rosetta Stone is designed to be entertaining and self-paced. You can learn a foreign language when you want, for as long or short a time as you wish. The complete set of Rosetta Stone language CD-ROM courses contains over 8,000 real life color images, plus thousands of words and phrases spoken by native speakers. Rosetta Stone comes in the Personal Edition, which is great for the independent student, and the Homeschool Edition, intended for parents who want to educate their children and follow their progress. Great for school or home study. Available for Arabic (Modern Standard), Chinese (Mandarin), Danish, Dutch, American English, British English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Irish Gaelic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Pashto, Persian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin American), Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese, and Welsh.. Windows and Macintosh CD-ROM. Rosetta Stone for Swahili Level 1 $299 Rosetta Stone Homeschool Edition for Swahili Level 1 $299 More information for Rosetta Stone...
Talk Now! CD-ROM Course for Swahili The Talk Now! series is for any language beginner who wants an entertaining self-study course to learn basic phrases, such as colors, numbers, food, shopping, and time. We have been selling this European-produced CD-ROM for a few years and find that it is highly praised by people from all over the world. Designed by language experts, Talk Now! includes great features like speak and repeat, interactive games, and digital recordings with native speakers. Interactive and fun, it is ideal for beginners and travelers. Test your knowledge with easy and hard quizzes and play a challenging memory game. Monitor your progress: keep your total score and print your own awards. You can also print your own picture dictionary for handy reference. On-screen help is available at all times in over 50 languages. Talk Now! runs on both Macintosh and Windows computers. Shipping weight 1 lb. $45 More about the Talk Now! series...
Vocabulary Builder from EuroTalk for Swahili (for absolute beginners) Vocabulary Builder is an interactive flash card system for parents and teachers to help teach basic language, and for children to play games and record their own words and sentences. Help is provided in over 40 languages by a talented talking tiger! Now available for learning Albanian, Arabic, Cantonese, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Norwegian, Papiamento, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and Welsh. Windows and Macintosh CD-ROM. $49.95 More about Vocabulary Builder...
EuroTalk Network Editions Now you can run Vocabulary Builder, Talk Now!, World Talk, and Movie Talk through your school or college CD server or CD tower for simultaneous use of these titles on your network! You'll have access to permanent reports for all the activities done by each student in the class for such things as time and sessions spent on each activity, scores in the quizzes and games. These network discs operate on most networks that are in common use in schools and colleges, such as NT, Novell, and Macintosh networks. Students can select their names from classes, and run the program currently assigned to that class, and students may optionally also be allowed to join classes. Teachers can see at a glance which students are currently logged on and what they are doing, and they can add students to classes, remove them, or move them around. A reports facility allows you to display or print reports for entire classes, or for individual students. Student reports show the number of sessions, the time spent on each activity, and scores in the quizzes and games, and times and scores can also be displayed in chart form. The prices are highly competitive, and the price per unit goes down dramatically as one goes up in the number of users and units. With a configuration of 100 users and 100 units, which goes for $9,995, you pay less than $1 per unit per person! More about EuroTalk Network...
Global Office Suite Now get Global Writer and Global Office for Office 97/2000/XP in one package for an amazing price! Global Writer is the word processor that lets you write in 100 languages with one keyboard, and Global Office is the enhancement to Microsoft Office that adds text entry and visual keyboard display in over 100 different languages - together they provide a complete multilingual suite. This package gives you a savings of $80 over buying these products individually! $299 More information for Global Office Suite...
Global Writer Professional Multilingual Word Processor Global Writer Professional is a word processor that lets you express yourself in 100 languages without learning a new keyboard layout or using stickers. It is very easy to use because it looks and feels like popular Windows applications. Global Writer's built-in and customizable spell checker and thesaurus make typing faster and more convenient than ever. Best of all, everything you need is included in the box, at an amazingly low price. Shipping weight 1 lb. $129 More information for Global Writer...
Global Office Language Support for Office 97/2000 Now you can write in all major languages from your standard English Windows in Office 97/2000! Unitype Global Office is an enhancement to Microsoft Office that adds text entry and visual keyboard display in over 100 different languages to these Microsoft products: Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint. It is easy to use, yet powerful enough to support the most demanding tasks of businesses, translation professionals, and academics worldwide. Best of all, the program is simple to install and everything you need is on one CD-ROM. Shipping weight 2 lbs. $250 More information for Global Office...