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This is why I recommend always purchasing travel insurance. The scary truth is it only takes one bad accident to lose everything — or be thankful you were covered. While you’re on their website, make sure to check out their other language offerings, too. The people of Ghana are very friendly and will often help you figure your way around the area and local customs.
After gripping each other’s hands, Ghanains will use their middle fingers to ‘click’. Greetings are really important dumb va laws in Akan culture. You would be seen as disrespectful or antisocial if you failed to greet someone, especially elders.
It is always at bottom of the speaker’s pitch range, except in the sequence /HLH/, in which case it is raised in pitch but the final /H/ is still lowered. Thus /HMH/ and /HLH/ are pronounced with distinct but very similar pitches. The phonetic pitch of the three tones depends on their environment, often being lowered after other tones, producing a steady decline known as tone terracing.
Thank you for reading on Asetena.com Share this article with your family and friends. Also known as foes, meaning secondhand clothing. It literally means ‘the dead white man’ as these clothes usually came from Europe and were known to be the old garments of Europeans that they no longer required. In West Africa, the title aunty is given to any older woman to whom deference is shown.
He was born and raised in Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital of Ghana, where Akan is spoken as the first language. You are welcome to third lesson in the Common Twi Expressions series. In this lesson, we look at how to greet and be polite with the Twi dialect of the Akan language. A collection of useful phrases inEwe, a Niger-Congo language spoken in Ghana, Togo and Benin.
Present and receive business cards with two hands or the right hand, never with the left. Christians will generally shake hands between the sexes; practising Muslims often will not shake hands with people of the opposite sex. Traditional or native greetings vary among the various ethnic groups. There are over 100 ethnic groups living in Ghana.
The Dagbanli and Mampelle languages of Northern Region, for instance, are mutually intelligible with the Frafra and Waali languages of the Upper West Region of Ghana. These four languages are of Mole-Dagbani ethnicity. As a result they tend to use proverbs, wise sayings, analogies readily. This allows ideas or messages to be convened in a manner that does not seem so blatant. In fact people who are viewed as wise frequently speak in proverbs.
Always try to keep your shoes clean of dirt and dust. Always use your right hand to give and receive items, and to eat. In this culture, your left hand is considered your ‘toilet hand’. It is a common practice to give money with your right hand while at the same time receiving small purchases into the same hand. The West African handshake is used in Ghana, where the middle finger snaps the middle finger of the person you are shaking. The louder the snap, the better, and it is acceptable to try the snap a second time if you miss it.
Take time to inquire about people’s health, family and jobs. Gifts should be given using the right hand only or both hands. When shaking hands between themselves Ghanaians will hold the right hand in the normal manner but will then twist and click each other’s middle finger. With foreigners the most common greeting is the handshake with a smile. People are respected because of their age, experience, wealth and/or position.