Author: Appeltjie

When learning any language, correct pronunciation of words is crucial for clear communication and fluency. In Afrikaans, there are some sounds that we just don’t make in English!

The first one is the “r” trilling sound. This is also known as “rolling your r’s”. Yea, I definitely cannot do that. I have heard there are different accents in Afrikaans where the “r rolling” is more pronounced, but my conclusion has been that to be grammatically correct, you need to trill the r’s.

The second difficult sound is the “g” sound. It’s kind of a throaty, almost gargling noise when the letter “g” is in a word. It does seem that you do not always use this noise for a “g”, but I haven’t been able to figure out when you don’t, so I am going with you always do.

So the “r” rolling I have yet to master, although I have improved since I first began! The best and easiest thing I found to do was to say the word “butter” and “pot of tea” really, really quickly over and over again. I found this information somewhere in a google search months ago, so I don’t have the actual article or website that I got it from. But basically, the placement of your tongue on the roof of your mouth is where your tongue needs to be when you roll an “r”. I mostly did this exercise for a minute or two wherever I thought of it (so my car at a stop light, waiting in line, etc.). It has helped, but I still have a long way to go before I can just roll my “r’s” at people for the fun of it.

The “g” noise, on the other hand, I can make pretty well. Not always consistently and it does seem to dry my throat out when I am practicing a lot, but at least I know how to make it! Some of my first words and most often used words are “Goeie More/Middag/Nag” (Good Morning/Day/Night) and “Hoe gaan dit met jou?/ Hoe gaan dit?” (How are you doing?/How are you?). I have probably said each of these… at least once a day since I started… some days multiple times!

The bottom line: Practice makes perfect! Something my dad used to say about math problems is to “push the pencil”. In relation to math, “push the pencil” means do more math problems. Do so many math problems (by pushing the pencil across paper) that the methods, theories, and formulas get so ingrained in your brain that you cannot possible forget how to do them. The same concept applies to languages. Practice, practice, practice!

Relinquishing trust to another person can be difficult, even if you know that person really well. I definitely struggle with this and want to feel in control a lot of the time. Learning Afrikaans has required me to place my trust in people that I don’t personally know and have never even met.

No one is going to argue that the internet can be a scary place. It has dark corners that you probably don’t really want to be, just like the real world. It also has sketchy people, also just like the real world. Trying to figure out who was genuine and who was expecting or wanting something more has been an interesting ride.

Using a platform such as Tinder (an app with a reputation for being a huge contributor to hook up culture) does bring some strange people across your plate. My initial “screening” is how they respond to me in the first few messages.

1. Are their messages things that people would actually say to your face in a public place?
2. Are they sexual in nature or have sexual implications?
3. Do they respond with well thought out answers that encourage conversation?

Although this method doesn’t always work and is not always applicable, it has worked more times than it hasn’t. I believe that most people have good intentions and do not try to be mean or rude, but differences in perspectives, lack of communication skills, and the inability to convey genuine tone through text messages all contribute to misunderstandings online.

Initially, it was really difficult for me to distinguish the reasons why I liked Afrikaans so much. As I started talking to more Afrikaans speaking people, it slowly became apparent why I enjoyed this language so much.

The first thing that appealed to me (which came from that initial Tinder date) was how masculine it sounded. It was both gruff and sexy, but was also being used by a man I found also found physically attractive. It turned me on to hear him speak in Afrikaans, and I wanted more. It wasn’t until he left that I fully realized that this language meant something special to me; that it hit my heartstrings in a way that was unlike other things I had come across in my life.

As I started to hear Afrikaans more (both in songs, videos and through conversing with Afrikaans people) I liked how much emotion was portrayed just through the use of words and tones. I know in English and other languages can also portray emotions through words, but the intensity of emotions shown in Afrikaans really appealed to me. I am a very emotionally open person and having another way to communicate those feelings was something that I could look forward to and get behind.

Thirdly, the way Afrikaans makes me feel when I hear it spoken or when I speak it. It makes my heart flutter and feel warm. I have yet to be annoyed with my Afrikaans learning, even though sometimes my head hurts or I feel frustrated.

I am pretty confident that anyone who talks to me or listens to me speak about Afrikaans can feel my passion and ekstaties towards the language. My enthusiasm to learn coupled with my never ending determination and drive make me an easy student to teach.

Practice makes perfect. This mantra is used regularly when people are struggling to learn or master something. Language learning requires this probably more than just about anything else (except maybe math?).

Meeting people was easier than I thought it would be, and I was surprised (still am even now) how excited people get when I tell them I am learning Afrikaans. In the beginning, obviously I didn’t really know very many words and my pronunciation of words I did know was pretty rough. The fact that I was trying seemed to really impress people, which made me feel quite awkward.

Awkward because I knew that I wasn’t doing things correctly most of the time. Awkward because I felt lucky to have people offer me their time and patience to help me and awkward because I was learning a new language and the words felt funny in my mouth (they still feel a bit strange sometimes but I’ll go into that a bit later).

Finding people to practice with me didn’t end up being as difficult as I originally thought it might be. Finding the time to practice that worked with both my time zone in California (GMT -8) and the time zone in Cape Town, South Africa (GMT +2) turned out to be the more difficult part of practicing.

Using WhatsApp helped, as audio messages were easy to send whenever, and could be listened to hours later at a more convenient time for the other person. It also allowed me to listen to correct pronunciations multiple times in order to replicate the sounds in each word or phrase (lots of voice messages that were meant for teaching me new words or correct pronunciations I listened to at least ten times before I attempted to say the word myself).

As of now, certain phrases I have said enough times that they are second nature, at least as far as meaning and use goes (pronunciation will always need work… pretty sure that American accent isn’t ever going to go away completely no matter how much I practice!). As I continue, a positive outlook on the tediousness of ‘practice makes perfect” is the only way to get through to the other side (also known as fluency :P).

The decision to commit to learning Afrikaans was easy. The execution of it is the hard part. Anyone can say they want to learn something. Anyone can talk about something passionately and with good intentions, but actually doing it, requires an entirely different level of commitment.

I actually had a dream a couple weeks after my initial exposure that solidified my desire to learn Afrikaans as less of a want, and more of a need. I woke up from this dream excited and filled with determination. I couldn’t understand why, and I didn’t know what would happen, but I knew that learning Afrikaans was important for me to do (it helped that it was also something I wanted to do).

When I was blocked, it not only forced me to make this commitment to myself (my learning got a whole lot harder without a connection to South Africa/Afrikaans), but required me to look outside the box for help. As I mentioned in a previous post, it was suggested to me that I change my Tinder location to somewhere where the language was spoken. I am not sure if it was suggested to me as a joke or not, but it seemed like a simple way to meet new people (and my journey started with Tinder, as that is how I met the first guy).

Tinder has a reputation for being primarily a hook up and dating app that allows it’s users to swipe left or right depending on if they are attracted to someone or not. Since I was using it for something entirely different (and I was on the opposite side of the planet so dating and hooking up wasn’t even physically possible), I changed my settings to include everyone (males and females). It didn’t take very long for me to have some new matches and some new people to talk to!

When most people (at this time) heard I wanted to learn Afrikaans and that I was American, it was assumed that I was coming to Cape Town on vacation and thought it would be cool to learn a few words in a local language. I cannot tell you how many times I got taught swear words, slang words, derogatory words, and other rude words.  

It felt like no one was taking me seriously, yet I knew that I just needed to be patient and persistent. That persistence did pay off, and it didn’t even take that long (about a 10 days after changing my Tinder profile location)! I matched with my first Afrikaans friend who I was able to make a genuine connection with (we bonded our love for the same plastic container brand, Sistema)! A few days after that, another really important person for my Afrikaans journey came into my life as well.

Making any kind of commitment, to yourself or someone else, can be difficult and scary (I was scared to start learning Afrikaans and asking strangers for help!) but anything worth having, is definitely worth fighting for.