"I speak small-small English"

This is the phrase that makes us cringe when we ask Burkinabé if they speak any English. "Oh, yes, small-small." Most of last year we were wondering where they got that phrase from, coz in French they would say "un peu/a little", yet they don't translate it as such.

Then we went to Ghana, and all was explained...they speak a special kind of English there. So "small-small" is quite common, as is "you are welcome" when you arrive somewhere (not just "welcome!") 'Fine' is a favourite word and can be used in place of 'yes'. And some words just don't get used at all. We were waiting for our bus to leave Accra for the 3-hour journey west to Cape Coast. The driver made an announcement from the aisle (no microphone) but we couldn't hear him above the noise of his radio. So he came closer, and explained that as it was a short trip we would not have a rest stop on the way. "So if you want to free yourself please come and tell me and I'll find a suitable place to stop." Huh? "So you can free yourself." We and the other (mostly) white passengers looked at him blankly. I decided to clarify to speed things up.

"You mean if we want to go to the toilet?"

He looked very embarrassed at the mention of this word...but at least everyone understood.

The accent is another thing. It's very much influenced by the rasta 'vibe' (they love Bob Marley just as much in Ghana, as in Burkina). When we returned to our hotel on the first evening of our stay in Cape Coast (pictured) and met the very friendly night guard, he asked us a question. "Do you like geckos?" is what I thought he said, prompting me to think that he was about to tell us that our room was in fact over-run by these icky little creatures (Jon actually likes them). I was formulating a reply in my head, something about how I didn't like geckos at all, and could we possibly change rooms, when Jon replied "yes, we like Cape Coast."

Geckos. Cape Coast. I played the 2 words over in my mind. They kind of sound the same, depending on how you pronounce 'cape'.

Cathlin