Learning Amharic

One year ago, I had never heard of the Ethiopian national language, Amharic. I would have thought you stuttered and meant Arabic or something.


Today, I ordered this CD from ebay to start learning some simple phrases and words. Since the first trip will be with my husband, I'm not even worried about getting around town. My world travelling Marine has that confidence to navigate any country. On the second trip, it might be just me or me and a friend. I would love to learn simple phrases like "where is the bathroom and can I get a taxi?"

There are several Amharic courses out there to learn from. I chose this one because I can listen to it while I drive to work every day. I couldn't find any reviews, so I'm hoping it will be easy to mimic and learn. There are several others, like Talk Now, that are CD-ROM format for the computer.

Here is another course by Amy Kendall especially for adoptive families. This would be a great resource for those adopting older children or kids from the wait list. It can be found on Amazon between $25 and $30. Be sure to buy a new one because the used ones are ridiculously priced :) It teaches very useful phrases like:

I am your Mommy
I am your Daddy.
You are going to live with us.
I will take good care of you.

I am also hoping one day my Ethiopian children would like to listen and learn some Amharic. I will keep this CD and maybe I can pass it on to them to understand their heritage.