Wolof is silly. We did numbers in our last class, and they make even less sense than most things in Wolof. There are really only numbers up to 5, and then you continue with "five-one", "five-two" etc. BUT, with money it's a different story. The smallest unit is five francs, so fukk (ten) actually means 50 francs. Our professor kept insisting it wasn't that complicated, so he used an example:
975 is "temer ak juroom-nyeent-fukk ak juroom" or "five hundred plus nine times fifty plus twenty-five". Except that it's really fifty plus nine times ten plus five, then you multiply the everything by five.
The best part is how everyone always assures me that people always use French numbers, so don't worry, except that people in shops actually tell me that I owe them ten plus sixteen. Times five. Get it?
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2 comments:
Clear as mud (or should I say dust since this is Senegal?). I sounds like it would be easier to just decide how much you think something should be and hand over money.
update! update! glad to hear you're having a good time in senegal though : )
also, would you mind e-mailing/facebooking me your US phone number when you get a chance? oh, you globetrotter, you.
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