Des here - team builder at Walk4Africa (W4A).
Our collective vision is to grow Africa's share of the outdoor (adventure) tourism market in support of the #AfricaAgenda2063 goals.
I am developing an outdoor event marketplace to boost sustainable tourism in Africa.
👉 You're invited to join the team as a co-founder in your (African) country.
We have co-founders in Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tunisia. Algeria, Libya, and Mauritania are pending confirmation. Co-founders for the remaining 46 African states are actively being sought.
To help you decide (respond to this post), here's a brief Q&A:
Why is W4A re-launching as a marketplace?
Let's look at some stats (from futuremarketinsights.com):
🌍 The global outdoor (adventure) tourism market earned $282 billion in 2021.
🐘 Market statistics for the Africa continent as a whole is estimated at $112.2 million
😱 For Africa, this figure represent a market share of under 0.04%!
Why is Africa performing poorly?
Ther...
Comments
I thought I'd do a quick poll of what languages everyone speaks here (and do a bit of user research, too). Don't include English if it's your native language.
I'll go first:
🇹🇭 "Taxi Thai" (enough to direct a motorcycle taxi, and order food)
🇩🇪 German (< 5%... 🙈 but enough words to pick up some phrases)
🇫🇮 although Finns don’t always understand me 🤷🏻♀️
🇫🇷 wannabe
🇺🇸 👌
🇪🇸 "Donde esta...?" (fill the gap with bus, bathroom, etc. 😉)
🇫🇷 "Je voudrais un croissant, s'il vous plait" 🥐😋
Spanish native 🇪🇦 Fluent English 🇺🇸
🇿🇦 Afrikaans and learnt a bit of isiXhosa but don't really speak it but would like to explore in learning to speak more
Sign language basics, mainly US Alphabet and maybe some words
I spoke Solomon Islands Pijin fluently until I was about 10 when we left the country. Can't remember much of that any more. Though I do occasionally still bust out a phrase and my kids look at me weirdly. :)
Spoke Dutch fluently when I lived there until I was 18. Not really fluent any more unfortunately, maybe 80%.
🇨🇦 French (my first language, though English came shortly after)
🇲🇽 Spanish (learning, poco a poco)
English (duh right? 🤣)
French (Just enough to get around)
German (Just enough to get around)
Tonga (Family mainly)
Shona (Family mainly)
Does Japanese from 10 years of watching Anime count?? 🤔🤔
Bit of Deutsche. Bit of Nihon.
Italian: native
English: fluent
Spanish: fluent
French: just for survival!
English
Mandarin - more accurately, "chinglish" lol
Russian (my native language), French fluent, English fluent and learnt German at the university... But can’t really talk it anymore 😔
I speak Arabic at a conversation level as I learned from my parents, but cannot write. I speak French as well, I can read, write and speak decently well. I also speak very basic Spanish, very basic hahahaa.
🇫🇷
German and Afrikaans
Bulgarian 🇧🇬
English 🇬🇧
Un poco Spanish 🇪🇸
Cat & Dog's 🐈⬛ 🦮
Love cats and dogs!!!! On my to-do list...
Russian (native)
English (fluent)
Vietnamese (elementary: enough to get around and have a short chat)
Learnt French for a couple of years at school but have almost forgotten it by now 😅
French as mother tongue, then I also speak English, Spanish, Dutch, hints of Italian, Portuguese and mandarin 😉
Vietnamese (native)
English (fluent)
Chinese (beginner)
🇪🇸 fluently and 🇩🇪 intermediate and a smattering of 🇫🇷
I speak 6 languages, 4 fluently.
Basic Spanish and Irish
Native English
Fluent German, French and Dutch
Thai (poorly) I have lived in Thailand for several months a year for about 7 years
Armenian (not that well) outside of the US and Thailand, I have spent the most amount of time in Armenia over the years (about a year and a half)
Decent Spanish, little Portuguese :)
German (native)
French and English (fluent)
Spanish ( not too bad)
Russian ( enough to survive if lost in Sibiria)
Dutch ( I understand a bit, but my answer will be a Germenglish)
Burmese ( enough to order my rice and say that I don't speak it well)
I seem to go down the rabbit hole of language learning because of traveling and have a collection of languages now....here it is:
French: I lived numerous times in France and Tahiti, one year in college I played on a female soccer team in France, later I worked in Paris a couple of times, and now spend part of the year in Tahiti (French speaking). I work in French a lot now as well.
Italian: I lived in Florence for 2 years, went to photography school there, I had 5 Italian roommates, me and my dog. I do have some Italian clients - that helps maintain it.
Greek: I used to work as a cook on a sailboat in Greece for many summers while touring the islands, so I learned Greek - I passed the second level proficiency exam offered by the government which would allow me to become a citizen.
Spanish: I did a 6-month language intensive in Madrid for Spanish - I speak fairly well.
Tagalog: I used to work in the Philippines and started learning Tagalog while there, but I have not kept that up, only remember a few phrases and greetings.
Tahitian: I spend a lot of time now in Tahiti, so I am learning Tahitian.
Wolof: I fell in love with Senegal, and I am learning Wolof.
If I have a few more lifetimes, I will learn Farsi, Arabic, and Turkish.
🇮🇳 Marathi (mother tongue)
🇮🇳 Hindi (national language of India)
🇮🇳 Gujarati (adjacent state language)
🇮🇳 Taxi Kannada
🇧🇷 Brazilian Portuguese (5 months in Brasil)
🇨🇴 Latin American Spanish (5 months in Ecuador & Colombia)
🇩🇪 German (A1 level from Goethe Institute)
🇫🇷 French (A1 level from Alliance Francaise)
🇮🇹 Greetings in Italian
🇹🇭 Taxi & courtesy Thai
🇯🇵 Basic greetings in Japanese
English (British - Mother tongue)
English (American - now more than 50% of my life in daily contact with Americans and I live there most of the time).
English (Irish varieties - north and south) I can order alcohol
Francais - Enough to get me into REAL trouble
Nederlands - swear and asking for a toilet, food, drink and JUST enough to be polite.
Also.... Pig Latin, Esperanto (if I have had enough to drink and its Karaoke night). I can write my name in Greek. In fact my skills at ordering drinks in several other languages is pretty awesome.
Anything else will insult someone.
Finnish. And What's your superpower 😅?
German fluent.
English fluent.
Montenegrin-Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian, enough to handle workshops.
Swedish, when I need it.
Spanish, better when there.
French, when I have to.
Portuguese, when in Brazil.
Dogspeak, daily.
Portuguese (native)
English
German
Spanish
Italian as native,
English ,
French,
Spanish,
a little bit of Portuguese,
German enough to be polite to ask for a beer
Portuguese (Brazilian)
Chinese (Mandarin)
Spanish
Languages I speak
Japanese - all day everyday
English - native
Languages I used to speak
Czech - used in be able to interpret between Czech and Japanese at business meetings
Swedish - had a Swedish boyfriend 😊
Languages I have studied
French - I’m Canadian
Spanish - just enough to get confused with French
Russian - just for one month before going there, but can still read the alphabet
Thai - loved it!
Italian - currently studying
- Chinese (Cantonese Hong Kong) - pretty fluent but not native.
- Spanish - I feel like if you grew up in Los Angeles you'd know a little Spanish hahaha. Definitely a beginner.
- Starting Japanese.
Luganda-Uganda
Kinyarwanda-Rwanda
Swahili....East Africa
Dutch-For Survival as well
French-Learning
Plus many other local languages spoken in Uganda
I can do the travel thing easily in English/Spanish/Japanese/Chinese/Indonesian-speaking places, plus menus in Arabic, Russian, and Korean.
French for me!
English (native)
German (fluent)
Czech ( I can roughly understand basic conversation, as long as its spoken reeeeeeally slowly)
Polish ( I can roughly understand basic conversation, but have been known to mix both Czech and Polish in my sentences, with utter confidence nonetheless!
French / English
Swahili - Native
Spanish - Almost fluent :)
Learning German and Russian
Hope to learn many more.
Fluent Spanish (from the Dominican Republic!)
I do love learning languages!
Portuguese ( my first language)
English ( fluent)
Spanish ( I can understand and communicate if you speak very slowly lol)
Japanese ( Started learning a couple of years ago but still have a very basic knowledge of it)
English: Native
Japanese: Fluent
Romanian 🇷🇴(native)
Italian 🇮🇹(native level)
English 🇬🇧(fluent)
French 🇫🇷(almost fluent)
😎😀🤭