Triple 7

Ugandans speak English, but it is a very special kind of English. Here are my notes:

* When sharing a phone number with repeated consecutive digits, always say "double" or "triple". I got a phone number dictated to me as 0 triple 7 1 double 4 5 triple 8. My brain simply does not process that kind of information

* Visit is a one syllable word, pronounced "Vist"

*People say thank you all the time for things that I don't think deserve thanks. If someone knocks on the door to the office, you can say "thank you" and they come in. A perfectly acceptable response to "how is your day going" is "thank you". Super-polite or lazy?

*Introducing someone as "son of the soil" or "daughter of the soil" never gets old and you can use that monniker for all 20 people in an hour long introduction of everyone present

*You can greet someone an unlimited number of times a day. It's not just the first time you see them that you do the whole "Hello, how are you". You do it every time they enter a room.

More as I notice it...

As promised:

*"Can't" seems to mean "don't want to" "shouldn't" and "won't". Example "Ugandans can't visit Sipi Falls" "Why" "Because they have seen it so many times already" "Is there a limit on how many times you can go?" "It cannot be interesting for us" "Oh"

*"serious" seems to mean "professional" "competent" and "sane" and being called "not serious" is a major insult.