Little of my education would have been possible without Monda. When I began my graduate studies at Penn I knew I would need to learn Chichewa, the most commonly spoken language in Malawi. I needed to find a teacher. Through a listserv of Malawians living in the United States I found Monda. Since the first day I met her I knew she was the teacher for me. Her Chichewa was fluent and her knowledge of the country’s history and culture deep. She was also familiar with some of the medical vocabulary I wanted to learn in Chichewa because of her studies in the sciences. Monda agreed to become my teacher.

 

In early 2013 I began studying Chichewa with Monda on campus for four hours each week. Monda was patient and resourceful. When I could not remember the meaning of a word, she would put it in a sentence in Chichewa and have me try to discern the definition in context. For teaching materials she used Peace Corps language manuals, primary school workbooks from Malawi, Malawian movies and songs. She assigns a variety of exercises, including translating recorded dialogues and writing essays. Today I feel much more comfortable with the language, so much so that Malawians at my field research site are amazed at my abilities. I owe it all to Monda.

 

Monda has become a sought-after teacher of African languages. She has worked wit a professional documentrian on a film about obstetric fistula in Malawi. Monda was also selected (and given funding) to participate in a workshop on teaching methods in foreign languages. She is currently working on a language manual for English-speaking medical professionals working in Malawian clinical settings. This is a much-needed resource, and I think it will be tremendously popular among the many expatriate doctors and medical students working in Malawi.  

 

Monda is an excellent teacher!

 

--Luke Messac, MD/PhD candidate, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA