Hakuna Matata!

Leah H. Pillsbury ’07 strolls into elementary Swahili class a few minutes early, sporting a “Quincy always hot” t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. She settles in a chair, spreads out her notes, and mentally reviews material from the previous class.

“Umefanya nini wikendi?” she asks the others, as they take a seat at the round table. After a few minutes of laid-back Swahili chatter about their weekends, Pillsbury stands up and heads toward the blackboard. It’s time for her to begin teaching.

Pillsbury is one-fourth of the Swahili Teaching Fellow (TF) crew, all of whom are undergraduates this year. “I really like the opportunity to expose other people to Swahili,” Pillsbury says. “It’s a language I think is important to learn.”

While most Harvard students equate TFs with graduate students who spare just enough time to teach sections and hold office hours, the Swahili arrangement is an exception to the rule. Despite their youth, students say the TFs are capable and appreciate their willingness to relate on both an academic and a personal level.

“It’s more like a student-student relationship, but one just has more to share,” says freshman TF Stephen H. Lwendo ’10.

The success of the Swahili program shows that there may be benefits to utilizing students as teaching resources.

FROM WHENCE IT CAME

Ekua K. Nkyekyer ’07 is the only TF this year to have taken a Harvard Swahili class before teaching one.

Although she is originally from Ghana, Nkyekyer’s native language, Akan, didn’t give her a leg up while studying here. Nkyekyer started from scratch, gradually acquiring the textbook skills that made her capable to teach this year. The student became the TF. Yoda would be proud.

Pillsbury, who is also a Crimson photographer, also learned Swahili as a second language, but in Tanzania, not Cambridge. After graduating from high school in Los Angeles, she spent a gap year volunteering for an NGO called Students Partnership Worldwide. She became fluent enough during those months of immersion to impress Professor of the Practice of African Languages and Cultures John M. Mugane. He then offered her a job her sophomore fall.

“Leah has been wonderful because she learned the language and can now be revered by the students—it is achievable,” says Mugane, who is also the director of the African Language Program.

LEARNING THE ROPES

Unlike their female counterparts, Muneer A. Hameer ’08 and Lwendo grew up speaking Swahili in Tanzania. At the start of his freshman year, Hameer approached Mugane in hopes of passing out of the language requirement. He accomplished that mission and also found himself with a teaching job.

“I was kind of surprised,” says Hameer. “It was a big deal for a while.”

Although Hameer and Lwendo are fluent in Swahili, the native speakers faced a challenge of their own: teaching a language that has always come naturally to them.

“I kind of had to learn the language with the students so I could communicate effectively with them—grammatical rules, subjunctive, and all that,” says Hameer. “You could pretty much say that I was taking the course with them, and that took me a while to realize.”

In this sense, they complement Nkyekyer and Pillsbury, who recognize which aspects of the language are most puzzling to English speakers but may be weaker in their knowledge of slang and proper pronunciation.

“Initially I was a bit hesitant since I had never actually been to a Swahili-speaking country, but I said ‘okay fine, I’ve learned it so I can definitely teach vocabulary and grammar,’” says Nkyekyer.

Pillsbury also had doubts, but they were the opposite of Nkyekyer’s. She had mastered casual conversation, but the nitty gritty details had never been tested.

“I felt uncomfortable because I felt like I didn’t know enough to be the Swahili teacher,” says Pillsbury. “There were a lot of specific grammatical rules I wasn’t familiar with, but Professor Mugane was always really supportive.”

WHAT’S IN AN AGE?

Despite their doubts about age and merit, the TFs seem to be succeeding at their jobs. In her first year, Pillsbury scored above a 4.5 CUE rating and won an award for her teaching.

“Leah obviously knows the material really well, and she’s still in college so she also relates to us,” says Michael D. Clarke ’10, one of her current students.

“Undergrad TFs are loved by the undergrads,” says Mugane, who attributes much of the program’s success to the popularity of the young TFs he hires. In addition to his own observations, he cites student feedback from weekly online reports.

Students also appreciate the ability to practice their language skills outside of the classroom, since run-ins with undergrads are more frequent than off-campus grad student TFs.

“It’s refreshing to have TFs who are students,” says Swahili student Adrienne C. Collatos ’10. “We don’t get to practice Swahili in our daily lives, so it’s exciting whenever we run into them and have the chance to use it.”

WIN-WIN

The undergrad TFs also benefit from the close relationship they have with their students.

Adjusting to both college life and American life for the first time, Lwendo considers his interactions in the classroom enlightening for both himself and his students. While he explained Swahili grammar and culture to his pupils, they explained American football and other facets of American culture to him.

“I was happy enough hanging out with the students, people who have a common interest in the language and culture–that was the greatest benefit for me, having a little bit of home away from home,” says Lwendo.

The friendships that the students form allow learning to take place in a more relaxed and comfortable environment. “There is less pressure, but that doesn’t mean we don’t learn as much,” says Megan A. Shutzer ’10, who is in her second Swahili class at Harvard.

And while they get paid to teach Swahili, it’s about passion, not dough, for Pillsbury and her fellow TFs. Though it might sound cliché, the TFs say it’s rewarding enough to share their knowledge with their peers.

“Sometimes it’s a little weird if you see someone at a party or something, but you become friends and it’s fine,” says Pillsbury. “It’s fine to be friends with your students.”