FSI Kituba Basic Course

Kituba is a creole language that serves as a lingua franca in Central Africa. It is thought to have first appeared as a pidgin based largely on the Bantu language Kikongo for communication between tribes speaking Kikongo-related dialects on the lower Congo and tribes speaking Lingala-related dialects further up-river.

It is now recognized as a national language in both the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo and is thought to have in the region of 5.5 million native speakers – along with several million others who speak it as a second language.

As the introduction to the course states, this is a little-studied language, and few resources exist for those who hope to learn it. The student text and unit audio for this course are available below. For anyone interested in discovering and learning this language, this free online Kituba course may be one of the only places to turn.

Course Materials

PDFs

• Student Text

Audio Files

Unit	Audio
Unit 01	Audio
Unit 02	Audio
Unit 03	Audio
Unit 04	Audio
Unit 05	Audio
Unit 06	Part A · Part B
Unit 07	Part A · Part B
Unit 08	Part A · Part B
Unit 09	Part A · Part B
Unit 10	Audio
Unit 11	Audio
Unit 12	Audio
Unit 13	Audio
Unit 14	Audio
Unit 15	Audio
Unit 16	Audio
Unit 17	Audio
Unit 18	Audio
Unit 19	Audio
Unit 20	Audio
Unit 21	Audio
Unit 22	Audio
Unit 23	Audio
Unit 24	Audio
Unit 25	Audio
Unit 26	Audio
Unit 27	Audio
Unit 28	Audio
Unit 29	Audio
Unit 30	Audio
Unit 31	Audio
Unit 32	Audio
Unit 33	Audio
Unit 34	Audio
Unit 35	Audio

What is the FSI Kituba Basic Course?

This FSI Kituba course was first published in 1963 and is made up of 35 units. Each unit has matching audio above (units 6–9 are split into two tracks).

Nevertheless, by working through the course, you will learn the basic language required to function in a range of common situations such as meeting someone for the first time, making a simple phone call or asking for directions.

On finishing it, you should be able to use the language confidently to communicate with Kituba speakers with whom you have no other common language.

How was FSI Kituba Basic originally used?

FSI Kituba was originally designed for US diplomatic staff who were preparing for postings in areas where Kituba is spoken.

The course consisted of six hours of class time per day along with two additional hours of personal study. They spoke only Kituba in class, and even outside of lesson time, they were encouraged to speak Kituba among themselves.

In this way, within only around six months, they were able to acquire a relatively high level of proficiency in the language, allowing them to assume their roles in their foreign postings.

How can you use FSI Kituba Basic?

For anyone who needs to learn the basics of the language, this free Kituba course will be one of the only sources of information available.

However, since you won’t be able to enjoy the same conditions US diplomatic staff benefited from when studying, you will have to adapt the materials to get the most out of them. Use the unit audio together with the student text for pronunciation and listening practice.

If you are determined to learn this language, you can supplement with other native audio or media, and use the dialogs and notes included here to deepen your knowledge of Kituba.

For further details about how best to use these materials, check out my suggestions for making the most of the FSI course in the blog section.

Taking it further

Whatever the quality of your study materials, you can never learn a language without practicing it.

This is perhaps even more true when learning something like Kituba since there are so few resources available to help you. For this reason, it is essential that you take the basics you learn from this course and go out into the real world and put them to use.

Try to find native speakers to converse with, and above all, try to make using Kituba a part of your daily life. Then, when you do, you may surprise yourself with how quickly you begin to pick up this fascinating but rarely studied language.