With so many of our posters looking at South African degrees for continuing their education, I began looking at the Afrikaaner language. It is one of the three official languages in South Africa and many official forms seem to have it as an option. Two things intrigued me. The first is the number of language resources on line for learning a language on your own (does anyone have favorite free sites for learning languages?) The second thing was that a couple of sites said that Afrikaans is among the easiest languages for English speakers to learn (even easier than Spanish). The reason is its grammar. It has no gender changes just like English. There is one form of "the" etc that does not change since the gender of nouns does not change. There are also some other features that make it a great language for English speakers (like easy change of "tion" words and some other grammatical rules that are similar to English). I thought that was kind of interesting. I recall a poster on another board who did his doctorate through the University of Zululand and made an effort to immerse himself in some of the South African culture and became familiar with the Afrikaaner language.
There are 11 official languages in SA. Afrikaans (especially in its written form) would also be a good springboard for learning Flemish, Dutch and so some degree German.
It looks like someone beat me to creating this thread. In any case, I look forward to seeing the responses. Someone (forgive me, as I can't remember who!) posted in the Rosetta Stone thread, saying that UNISA offered Afrikaans degrees at most/all levels. I haven't looked into it yet, but I would imagine that the degrees are for native speakers (just like we have English degrees here in the States for natives). Has anyone else looked into them?
That was me. I believe that anyone may take the Afrikaans courses through UNISA, but it's probably worth inquiring about.
Afrikaans is one the easiest foreign languages for native English speakers to learn (along with Dutch, Frisian and Norwegian). Here is an excellent site for learning Afrikaans: openlanguages.net: Learn Afrikaans Online for Free
I'm sure that anyone is permitted to take the courses, but the struggle would be the course content. If they are teaching Afrikaans as a second language (like a BA in French here in the States might do), they'll be teaching new vocabulary and whatnot. If the courses are aimed at natives (like our BA in English), there will be a heavier emphasis on literature, writing essays, etc., I'd imagine. I'm definitely not able to do the latter.
Thanks for the great site! Yes, Afrikaans is the only language I have seen that so closely runs along side English in terms of grammar and not having to learn all of the gender issues that you have to with other languages. In fact, one article said it was so close that all he really had to do was learn pronunciation and vocabulary. Think it is even easier in that sense than Dutch to pick up and once you understand it you can then understand Dutch and Flemish (as you note). Again, thanks for the link.
Pardon my ignorance, but how is Afrikaans easier than Dutch? I had thought that they were relatively similar?
My understanding based on what I have read is that Afrikaans as a language has a simplified grammatical structure that is much closer to English in terms of tenses, not having gender of nouns to learn and therefore how those change the definite article....whereas Dutch does have gender (albeit 2 if I recall) and some other features that make it a little more complicated. I have read the claim that someone who speaks Afrikaans can understand Dutch a bit easier than the other way around (knowing neither I am not sure why).
Actually, I'm studying Dutch. I briefly began studying Afrikaans earlier this year, however, other than the site that I linked to above (which is excellent), I was unable locate good instructional materials. I decided to go with Dutch as there is a wealth o learning materials out there, the two languages are very closely related and lastly, I usually vacation in Aruba each year, so I will hopefully have some luck in putting the language to use. As an aside, I did visit S. Africa back in 2008 and I had a great time. Beautiful country and beautiful people (inside and out).
They are very similar, however, keep in mind that they are still considered to be separate languages. For example, Afrikaans does not have grammatical genders, where as Dutch has two. Another example is that Afrikaans verbs are much simplified compared with Dutch. Wikipedia has a very thorough article on the subject: Differences between Afrikaans and Dutch
Have you used any software? My in-laws speak Afrikaans so I want to be able to understand a little the next time we visit.
Ah, that is right. I believe you had mentioned some of those details in the other thread. My apologies for having you repeat everything again! Thanks for the info though.
Amazon has a few copies of "Teach Yourself Afrikaans": Teach Yourself Afrikaans Complete Course Package (Book+ 2CDs) (TY: Complete Courses):Amazon:Books I have the Dutch version. It is good to get you started. Includes a book and 2 CDs.
I visited as a tourist. Yes, my wife and I both love to travel. I have not completed a S. African degree, although I've considered it in the past.
