Hai gais. So about a year ago I was studying Norwegian for a while. You guys probs don't remember but I made like one thread about it and the Norwegians here were all kewl and encouraging. Well, that didn't last super long like most of my foreign language stints and yesterday for no real reason other than I like the way it sounds, I decided to try learning some Afrikaans. It's fun so far. I found a few ok online resources and I'm also using the Teach Yourself book series.

I think one of the reasons I don't spend so long on any language is cuz I usually don't have a lot of social context for any of it. By far the language I spent the longest studying was Japanese cuz of the huge pool of online cultural resources in which one can swim. With the exception of its political history, I know very little about South Africa.

I know there are some South Africans here at BSF. I've seen at least ONE before. You guys got any cool Afrikaans things you could share with me? I guess I'm thinking more along the lines of pop culture -- artists, videos, interesting blogs, etc etc. Right now I can't stop listening to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4htffhIOZYk (omg lol clean version sounds rly bad).

Anyone else ever take an interest in this language? Or Dutch, from which it originates? Feel free to turn this into a general learning-languages thread too.

I'm Dutch. I've tried, many a time, to learn it. See, I have Dutch grandparents who moved here in the 50's, so they still speak the language fluently. Problem is, they came here and kinda dropped their cultural identity, so they no longer wanted to be identified as Dutch. As a result, they see no reason as to why I should learn Dutch. They never taught me as a child, and now that I'm actively trying to learn, they don't take it seriously. They gave me a Dutch book, but it has about 7 Dutch words to each English word and doesn't specify plurals or anything, so it's real confusing. Oma's advice was simply, "pick the easiest one to say!" I avoid books and the like, because you don't get the pronunciation correctly from them. I guess there are online resources I could use that have the spoken language on them, but I never really thought of that til now.
I'll just end my pointless rant here before it gets any more off topic

Die Antwoord give South Africans a bad name

Hehehe, I spent practically my whole time studying today just trying to learn pronunciation. I mean, not that I at all expected to have flawless pronunciation within two days, just to able to KNOW how it should sound. It's definitely been confusing, and my three-month affair with Norwegian doesn't help because I keep accidentally saying words like I'm speaking IT instead :cryvaultboy: The Teach Yourself series comes with audio which has been super helpful.

As an aside and despite how elementary it is, I got giggly excited that I recognized the word "oma." :dance:

I'm Dutch too. Afrikaans has some similarities so it's possible to understand sentences somewhat when reading it but there are still some big differences, especially in individual words.

Some of them are pretty funny from a Dutch point of view. Like how the word for elevator is hysbak, and the word for chameleon is verkleurmannetjie (colour changing guy)

I mean this in the least offensive way possible, but actually I really love how Afrikaans is like a bastardized Dutch. I'm attracted to its simplicity.



I can see why you'd say that, but I think they're great artists :intergalactic:

If you're having trouble you can add me on Steam (Yugemos) or MSN (Yugemos@hotmail.com). I'm second-language Afrikaans and I lived most of my life in South Africa.

I don't know any Afrikaans but I like Die Antwoord!



in what way?

Omg omg yay ayayay!!!1 Baie dankie!!!! I totally use neither of those but I could just PM you or something right??? :hugs:



Ya man dey hot. I wish I'd known about them when they were still touring in the US.

Oh I'm not offended, I can see what you mean.

Dutch is, after all, a bastard to start with.


Sidenote: And that, my friends, is a pun .

It's like if you took a hill-billy and had him represent America.




Yeah, sure.

traffic lights = roboverkeerregelaars.. :goodjob:

When the Boers settled in SA, their Dutch developed in a different way than back in Holland. European Dutch kept developing with words for computer, elevator and the like along with the countries around us, where as Afrikaans was isolated (surrounded by tribes speaking something completely different), and developed modern words differently, like elevator -hysbak translates as lift bucket, and is even spelled in an old fashioned form..

http://www.afrikaans.nu/ : :read:

baie sukses

I imagine any language will be hard to master without educational support (elementary and high school, advanced classes in nearby universities and such), media outlets (cable television and movies) and preferably a native speaking community nearby. You might get a rudimentary knowledge of the language, but there's almost no hope for becoming fluent without some of those things.

(As I remember) I have been told that Afrikaans has more in common with archaic Dutch than modern Dutch, is that true-ish?

My father grew up in South Africa and he's fluent in Afrikaans and Zulu (and English). I never did much with the former but I've messed around with Zulu a bit, agglutinative languages are pretty cool.

My father used to have a word that meant "quickly" or "faster" or something, something along the lines of chay cha. It was used a lot when I was a little kid and now that I'm a father myself I see why. He also liked to say, "borsel your tande with a tandeborsel." (Brush your teeth with a toothbrush.)


Damn robots at every intersection!

I have been trying to learn Afrikaans without spending any money on it, because I like unusually heard colonial languages. I've found there's a limit to how much I can learn without speaking to those who know it or paying for actual lessons.

I find listening to Afrikaans music helps (where you can actually hear the words spoken :rolleyes: ). Stuff like what Bok Van Blerk sings, but also more traditional folk songs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqz0M5k75m0

Putting this aside for when I can understand it without educated guessing. Really interested in that aspect of the language :happy:



Aw man way to come 'round raining on my parade! Naw, of course I know that. I don't want to say that being fluent isn't my ultimate goal, but the real fun of learning a language is watching it unfold before you; when things you didn't know before are suddenly easily understood. I'm sure I will eventually reach a point where I plateau without any actual, real-time communication, but I can figure that out when I get there. In the meantime, my hope for this thread WAS to obtain some media outlets! :0



Although that was terribly boring to listen to I can see the merit in doing so. I've also been going to http://www.rsg.co.za/ to listen to crap about whatever, just getting a feel for how the language sounds. How long have you been studying Afrikaans? What level of proficiency would you say you've reached? Besides the issue you mentioned, what has been the most difficult thing about learning it? :icecream:

That's "robotrafficregulators"? Brilliant.

Exactly.

Fookin' odd language.

Well it does help if you enjoy that sort of music. It's just Die Antwoord would be like learning English from a gangster rapper. Theoretically, they would be able to understand you, but it probably wouldn't help you in a board meeting.

And in terms of my own proficiency, I'm roughly at the level of your average 12 month old boer with learning difficulties.

Pronouncing the erm, "voiceless velar fricative" as in "goed" can be difficult to remember where it is used, as the sound doesn't exist in english except in loan words like "loch".


Vreemde taal. :yes:

Ah, I didn't know they had a name for that.

And even with "loch", most people mispronounce it (the "ch" sounds a bit like a cat hissing, yes?). In Slavic languages the same sound is made by "х".

I love it when English-speaking people try to pronounce Van Gogh with the correct sound. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLTQv8RH1TE was quite funny. Most Dutch have a problem with the silent "th" sound though...

I find Afrikaans not so difficult to understand, just funny.