Kiswahili or Swahili (official); Kiunguja (name for Swahili in Zanzibar); English (official, the primary language of commerce, administration, and higher education); Arabic (widely spoken in Zanzibar), plus many local languages. Tanzanians speak Kiswahili and, to a much more limited extent than in Kenya, English. (As elsewhere, English is more commonly spoken in larger cities and tourist destinations.)

Most Tanzanians learn their local tribal language first. Then, in primary school, they learn Kiswahili. When they go to secondary school, they are taught English.

Time of Day

This is where a little knowledge of Kiswahili can cause some inconveniences. Tanzanians don’t function on the same time as Westerners. This doesn’t mean Africa time, which is the notion that appointments are flexible and people can arrive when they please. For Tanzanians, it’s illogical that the day would start in the middle of the night.

Since sunrise and sunset happen pretty much at the same time all year round, 6a.m. and 6p.m., the day starts at 6a.m.which is 0 hours. So when telling time in Kiswahili, Tanzanians always subtracted 6 hours for western time. 11 a.m. is 5a.m to a Tanzanian. To avoid any confusion, a Tanzanian will tell time in English if they want to use the western standard and in Kiswahili if they use local standard.

If you want to practice your Kiswahili, just keep this in mind if you discuss appointment times with a Tanzanian. If you say Saa kumi na moja asabuhi(11 a.m.), instead of Saa tano asabuhi (5 a.m.), you’ll end up waiting for 6 h for the person to arrive if the person arrives on time (lateness is so common here)!