Learning Afrikaans
Comradebot
Lord of DinosaursHouston, TXRegistered User regular
Lord of DinosaursHouston, TXRegistered User regular
So I'm going to be spending most of next summer in South Africa on a paleontological dig, thus fulfilling two dreams at once (working towards becoming a paleontologist AND spending time in South Africa!).
However, I think I'd like to spend some of my free time between now and half a year from now learning Afrikaans. Its not required of the expedition, but its a language that's always fascinated me, and I'm a German minor with no German classes this semester so I figure it'd be fun to learn something else during that downtime (not to mention it might be a wee bit useful during my more than a month long stay). Problem is, there's no "obvious" stuff to aid in the learning of Afrikaans. Even if I had the money to burn (or lacked enough honor to steal), Rosetta Stone doesn't offer any kind of Afrikaans software. And it's not like there's any classes or get-togethers aimed at teaching/learning it around here, either. Basically, I'm probably looking at the internets as my only avenue of knowledge here. With Rosetta Stone out, is there any other software learning tools that could aid me? Are their forums out there where I could get advice/practice?
However, I think I'd like to spend some of my free time between now and half a year from now learning Afrikaans. Its not required of the expedition, but its a language that's always fascinated me, and I'm a German minor with no German classes this semester so I figure it'd be fun to learn something else during that downtime (not to mention it might be a wee bit useful during my more than a month long stay). Problem is, there's no "obvious" stuff to aid in the learning of Afrikaans. Even if I had the money to burn (or lacked enough honor to steal), Rosetta Stone doesn't offer any kind of Afrikaans software. And it's not like there's any classes or get-togethers aimed at teaching/learning it around here, either. Basically, I'm probably looking at the internets as my only avenue of knowledge here. With Rosetta Stone out, is there any other software learning tools that could aid me? Are their forums out there where I could get advice/practice?
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While I quite like it since it's the most bastard of languages (I'm biased) you probably won't have a lot of opportunity to use it, unless someone on your team speaks it.
Though that actually also depends on where you're going.
Edit: I'm assuming since you mentioned it, you are aware of it, but German is a pretty good language to know when learning Afrikaans.
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
source - my Belgian wife
Everyone that speaks or knows Dutch thinks Afrikaans is just Dutch with a funny accent and lots of slang.
Those people are correct.
I never met anyone down there who didn't speak passable English, which is probably why your expidition isn't requiring it.
There's also tons of tribal languages (which is common in Africa). I've been told that if you go way out in the boonies, people don't know English or Afrikaans.
However, since you are interested in the language for language sake, there's several online flashcard programs. Here's some. It's not the best for learning language structure, but you can learn some useful phrases.
As a native dutchspeaker I agree with this. However do not think you will be able to get by by studying Dutch and then just 'making it work'. I feel like it takes a pretty decent knowledge of slangwords and expression you don't really get out of books. It sometimes took me a while to fully understand the meaning. There's some words that are actually Dutch words but have a fully different meaning, and then there's words like 'traffic light' that are translated by 'robot' in Afrikaans.
Basicly, your German background gives you a good starting point for Dutch, but that's no guarantee you'll get by okay in Afrikaans.
Most people do speak English, so your best bet is to just do that.
Except for the part that I'm doing this for the funs. I'm aware it's not required and that I'll be totally cool with just ye olde English, but it feels like a good opportunity to expand myself a little.
Maybe I'll go with the Dutch approach, though I'm still waiting for someone to give some solid advice on what to do incase I just wanted to jump straight to the zany "bastard" language.
If you want to be able to talk to people on the street then you should probably memorize stuff from easyafrikaans.com and the like, if you're interested in grammar then you will have to find / pay for books and classes. If you are serious about learning multiple languages and would like to study Dutch as to be able to study Afrikaans as a scholar then you'll be in it for the long haul! Dutch is a criminally complex language (with less rules and more exceptions than German).
eh, robot is slang. People use traffic light (verkeers lig) and you wont confuse anybody.
Same with ketchup etc.
Anecdotally, native Afrikaans speakers tend to be able to talk to native Dutch speakers relatively easy*, but people who have either a second language can't.
*as in can communicate, but don't expect a debate about philosophy.
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
I know it's slang, but it's also used very often, that's kind of what I was getting at. I felt that OP wanted to be able to walk up to a SA-person and start a conversation. If you do expect a lot of (local) slang to seep into the conversation. It'll kill the entire flow of the conversation when you ask the other person to speak without slang. Just try this in your own language with other people and see how hard it is to have a conversation without slang or even with just proper pronounciation. [/quote]
Not saying it's impossible, just saying I don't think this is what the OP is going for.
As been said before, this is going to require a bunch of studying. Dutch is like the crazy brother of German. They're kind of the same but it just doesn't make sense half the time.
@Comradebot, if you just want to jump into the zany language, just find a book with some courant phrases or words, you'll be able to have fun with that.
Also listen to Die Antwoord.
Yeah but that only goes for native Dutch speakers. The kind of associations a native Dutch speaker can make are impossible for most non-native speakers. I get that 'braaivleis' means barbecue-meat because I know a lot of Dutch words and can connect them without problem. But both 'braai' and 'vleis' aren't actually Dutch words, in fact the Dutch word for barbecue is just barbecue. So the only way to get braai is to know that it's derived from the word 'braden' (well, 'braad'), which isn't a word you're likely to hear speaking with Dutch people, and certainly not something you'd get in any class.
It's not just lost of slang, it's slang that is the actual language. Even native Dutch speakers have trouble with it and can communicate only to a degree. Talk is very basic. (Shit, Dutch people are far better at English. Which actually harms foreigners from learning the language because Dutch people switch to English really quick. )
http://alphadictionary.com/directory/Languages/Germanic/Afrikaans/