SGR: When “economy class” becomes “daraja la uchumi”!

I have recently travelled on the SGR from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma and I must admit, the experience was fascinating.

DODOMA: I have recently travelled on the SGR from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma and I must admit, the experience was fascinating.

Among the many accolades that can be given to the Tanzania Railways Company (TRC), are, the cleanliness of the coaches and fact that the train left on the hour as scheduled. The Dar es Salaam and Dodoma railway stations can justifiably be called ultra-modern.

There are a few teething issues here and there, but it is to be hoped that these will be solved as time goes on. Strolling within the railway station got me to see a number of posters aimed at educating or directing passengers. Apparently, TRC offers three types of tickets: Royal (the most expensive), Business and Economy.

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The translation of the “economy class” into Swahili was interesting. “Economy Class” was considered to be: “Daraja la Uchumi”. Since “economics” means “uchumi” in Kiswahili, it seems appropriate to conceive: “Economy Class” as “Daraja la Uchumi”.

Yet that does not make sense. It is not always necessary to translate word-for-word when comparing one language to another. My take for ‘Royal Class”, “Business Class” and “Economy Class” would be: “Daraja la Juu”, “Daraja la Kati” and ‘‘Daraja la Kawaida” respectively. Forget “Daraja la Uchumi”! All said and done, TRC are doing their best to ensure that passengers get the best experience on the SGR trains.

Please keep it up! We now turn to the US and read this story in the Good Citizen (23 July, Page 6) titled: “Lessons as Biden quits election race”. The story’s writer cites a number of cases on how various experts reacted to the decision. Here is one of them: “Analysts say the ‘health’ decision was wise but was delayed”. What is the word “health” doing in the sentence? If it was left out, readers would not get lost.

ALSO READ: How SGR revolutionize Tanzania’s transport network

However, it may well be that the writer wanted to emphasise that the decision had health reasons behind it. If that was the case the sentence may take the following form: “Analysts say the decision, based on ‘health grounds’, was wise but was long overdue”. Here is another cited opinion: “A University of Dodoma (Udom) ‘political senior lecturer’, Dr PL said, what happened in the US demonstrates the maturity of democracy”. “A political senior lecturer”?

I would go for: “A Senior lecturer in political science”, making the sentence flow as follows: “A University of Dodoma (Udom) ‘senior lecturer in political science’, Dr PL said, what happened in the US demonstrates the maturity of democracy”.

The don said more: “Therefore, democracy has asserted itself and he has agreed to be ‘consulted’”. Was “consulted”, the right word? I get a feeling the writer had “replaced”, or, “substituted”, in mind: “Therefore, democracy has asserted itself and he has agreed to be ‘replaced’”.

More opinions: “Basically, though America’s foreign policy remains intact irrespective ‘of which’ wins ‘the government’, analysts are of the view that Donald Trump would most likely double down on his ‘America First’ vision, if he wins a second term”. Something is missing in this sentence.

What does “which”, refer to? My take would be: “Basically, though America’s foreign policy remains intact irrespective ‘of which Party’ wins ‘the elections’, analysts are of the view that Donald Trump would most likely double down on his ‘America First’ vision, if he wins a second term”.

Issues of child disappearance and abuse keep on appearing in our media; like this story on page 3 of the Good Citizen of July 22, titled: “How housemaid rage spills over to children”. Midway through the story we read the following: “We need to train ‘housemaids’ on conflict resolution and stress management to help ‘housemaids’ cope better with the challenges they face”.

In the sentence, the word: “housemaid” is used twice. Pronouns were made to avoid that kind of repetition. My version is as follows: “We need to train ‘housemaids’ on conflict resolution and stress management to help ‘them’ cope better with the challenges they face”.

Have a nice weekend and my heartfelt greeting from Dodoma!

lusuggakironde@gmail.com