FSI Shona Basic Course

What is the FSI Shona Basic Course?

This FSI Shona course, which first appeared in 1965, is based on the Manyika dialect of the language. However, at the same time, it also attempts to allow for the differences in pronunciation and vocabulary found in other versions of the language.

It is divided into 49 units, each starting with a dialog that presents the new language. This is followed by drills and exercises that are designed to let you practice what you have just learned.

Each unit is also accompanied by an audio recording that you can use to work on your pronunciation – however, at present, only the recordings for units 1-35 are available.

How was FSI Shona Basic originally used?

This course was originally created for US diplomatic staff who needed a grounding in the language before being sent to postings in parts of the world where Shona is spoken.

The students would take around six hours of class each day, and they followed this up with a further two hours of personal study.

During lesson time, they spoke only Shona, and even outside of class, they were encouraged to use it to communicate among themselves. In this way, after only an amount of time, they were able to gain a relatively high level of competence in the language.

How can you use FSI Shona Basic?

Although you can’t expect to recreate the perfect learning environment of an FSI classroom, you can still benefit greatly from this free Shona course if you know how to adapt it.

Since this will probably be your primary source of learning materials for this language, you can work through the dialogues, using the drills and exercises to practice what you learn along the way.

If you can find other study resources to supplement the FSI course, you will be able to accelerate your progress even more.

Taking it further

However good your study materials, you can’t expect to learn a language through books alone. This means, as soon as you can, you also need to take your Shona skills and try them out with native speakers.

Try to find people you can practice with and make speaking Shona a part of your daily life – because once you do this, you will see how quickly your ability in the language starts to grow.