The language spoken on the islands of Zanzibar is Kiswahili(Swahili). There is a website dedicated to the learning of Kiswahili, the Kiswahili Home Page . The authors have created several on-line lessons, covering vocabulary, grammar and syntax.

Another great site to visit is the Kiswahili Resource Page. It has links to all websites related to the Kiswahili language. WARNING! You might need 'shades' to view this side...it background colour is very bright!

Another website we strongly recommend you visit is the Internet Living Swahili Dictionary, which is a collaborative work by people all over the world to establish online dictionaries of the Swahili language, both within Swahili and between Swahili and English.

As the access to the internet gets cheaper by the day, it is now affordable to "tune in" to the weekly news from the BBC Swahili Service or even listen to some live music from Radio One, Tanzania's first FM Radio Station.

For those of you already on the island and eager to learn more about the Swahili language, read on...

Opened in 1979, this institute teaches Kiswahili to students from different parts of the world.

The institute offers courses at a beginner, intermediate and advanced level. The courses take a period from three weeks to 2 months depending on the student's level of understanding.

The institute also runs a one week crash course for tourists interested in the Kiswahili language.