By Yeona (Zuba)
When learning Kinyarwanda in Korea before coming to Rwanda as a volunteer, the first things I learned were greetings such as “Mwaramutse,” “Mwiriwe,” and the like. It was amazing that there were various greetings by the time of day or by the situation. There were more expressions than just “Good morning” or “Good night” in English. There is less range of greetings that can be said in Korean than in English. This is because words like “Hi” and “Bye” are the same as “안녕(An-nyeong)” in Korea. It is also the same in the morning, lunch, and dinner.
When I finally arrived at Kigali Airport after learning some Kinyarwanda sentences in Korea, I wanted to say hello in Kinyarwanda to the first person I met in Rwanda as I memorized the sentences used in the greeting situation really hard. I was quite nervous when I first handed over the greetings I had practiced to the staff working at the airport after arriving in Rwanda. I remember checking my watch again. It was before noon, so I said “Mwaramutse.”
One of Mandela’s famous quotes is this. “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.” As he said, I believe there is a strong power in greeting with the person’s first language, even when simply saying hello. So I still try to say hello in Kinyarwanda even if the other person is fluent in English, even though I have lived in Kigali for nearly a month. And when I say hello to the other person, I unconsciously think about how long this has passed since the beginning of my day. “Where is me and you in this beautiful day?” I am reminded of this by saying hello. Knowing exactly when it is and where we are adds a lot of peace of mind. Time in Korea has gone by very quickly. The day passed in the blink of an eye as I was busy handling tasks. There is no time to pay attention to the people I met. However, in Rwanda, I feel like I am accurately aware of how the day is going every time I greet the many people I meet for a day. I quite like that.
Another good thing about greeting people in Rwanda is that they literally greet each other often. They greet each other not only colleagues, but also hotel staff, taxi drivers, and even first-time people on the street, and ask how they are doing. Even “Amakuru?” which is used to say “How are you?”, is hard to completely translate into Korean. That’s because no one says “How are you?”. In Korea, people tend to think that it is more polite to not pay much attention to strangers. It is not strange at all to say something right away without saying hello, even when using restaurants or public transportation. I think it is because there is a growing tendency not to invade personal space as much as possible. However, I felt warm and welcoming in Rwanda’s culture of greeting and asking hello even to strangers. At least in this strange country of so many different social and cultural backgrounds, it felt really appreciated that so many people were interested in and talking to volunteers from a strange country in Asia.