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Tuongee Kiswahili Conversational Phrasebook is designed to help me speak Kiswahili in basic daily situations rapidly, effectively, and easily. This Conversational phrasebook has 32 topical lessons (accompanied by Audio, DVD), covering everything that I need to know to understand and speak Kiswahili. By reading this book, I will be able to introduce myself, get help in an emergency; shop; order in a restaurant; communicate in the office, talk about myself and family and even discuss literature, politics and public affairs.

Tuongee Kiswahili Conversational Course is a Conversational course that uses this phrasebook together with CDs and DVDs to make me want to study. It does not waste my time just teaching me vocabulary and grammar. If I am going to learn Kiswahili, or any other language for that matter, I HAVE to speak it. The motto is “Listen, Repeat, and Speak Kiswahili.”

Resumen:
Este trabajo se enfoca en el estudio de las gramáticas de las lenguas amerindias, el proyecto que
llevó a curas y gramáticos a poner por escrito una serie de lenguas que no conocían la escritura. A
través del estudio de las gramáticas de las lenguas amerindias (el náhuatl, el quechua, el muisca),
podemos vislumbrar las razones que llevaron a sus autores a establecer contactos con culturas y
sociedades diferentes, además de apropiar de una forma novedosa un saber y una práctica
cotidiana de los seres humanos en sus existencia social. La búsqueda de la conversión de los
indígenas al catolicismo, junto con la labor de los misioneros y capellanes, llevo a un enorme
esfuerzo por hacer entendible las lenguas y los significados de estos nuevos grupos que aparecen
en la historia y pensamiento europeos.
Palabras clave: gramáticas, lenguas amerindias, conversión.
Abstract:
This paper focuses on the study of the grammar of Amerindian languages, the Project that moved
priests and grammarians to put into writing a series of oral languages. Studying the grammar of
Amerindian languages (náhuatl, quechua, muisca), we can see the reasons their authors had to
establish contacts with different cultures and societies, besides the appropriation of a new
knowledge and a new practice in the everyday life of human beings in their social existence. The
aim of converting indigenous people to Catholicism, together with the work of missionaries an
chaplains, meant an enormous effort to make understandable the languages and meanings of
these new groups that appeared in the European history and thought.
Key words: grammars, Amerindian languages, conversion.