I need to learn Afrikaans

[ches]

Hehe that would've hopefully just gotten you a giggle and maybe some impressed looks from your boyfriend that you'd been able to find such an expression. It was also meant as a lesson to you to be careful what you get on the internet.

If you sincerely want to learn Afrikaans, you'll have a very hard time in WI and would be better off looking for Dutch lessons. After a couple months learning Dutch, Afrikaans will look like childsplay to you. My husband has that Teach Yourself Afrikaans book that was recommended to you on Yahoo! and it's okay, but it's not going to make you a conversationalist overnight.

I'm reminded of someone I worked with once, a Brit, who thought it would be essential that he learn Afrikaans before emigrating to South Africa. He took lessons and was fluent (as a second language, anyway) but had the worst accent on the planet. It was hilarious to hear him speak grammatically correct Afrikaans with such a heinous accent. Of course he landed in Cape Town and discovered that he had no need for Afrikaans at all.

Unless you pack up and move to a tiny Karoo town, you will be able to get by just fine speaking English. Your boyfriend's family may speak very broken English back to you, but chances are if you learned Afrikaans they'd still speak to you in broken English. I am bilingual but grew up speaking English and even though my Afrikaans is better than most Afrikaans peoples' English, if they notice one iota of an English lick in my accent, they will switch over to English. Afrikaans people are a lot more accommodating than Parisians.

[Bowiefan871]

Originally Posted by ches

If you sincerely want to learn Afrikaans, you'll have a very hard time in WI and would be better off looking for Dutch lessons. After a couple months learning Dutch, Afrikaans will look like childsplay to you.

Is Dutch really that much harder than Afrikaans? I always thought there was a lot more vocabulary in Afrikaans compared to Dutch.

[ches]

Originally Posted by Bowiefan871

Is Dutch really that much harder than Afrikaans? I always thought there was a lot more vocabulary in Afrikaans compared to Dutch.

Dutch grammar is much more complex than Afrikaans grammar. Vocabulary doesn't really make a language difficult to learn, and I wouldn't say there was more in Afrikaans than in Dutch. Afrikaans was Dutch 400 years ago, but it was spoken by a small group of mostly illiterate people, allowing it to modify in a manner that simplified it. It also incorporated words from the Khoi Khoi, San and east Indie people who were brought to the Cape as slaves. First Language Afrikaans speakers are required to read one Dutch book in their final year of high school, and Afrikaans musicians release records in the Netherlands. Afrikaans is actually very similar to Flemmish (spoken in parts of Belgium).

[Moonwalker]

Originally Posted by ches

Dutch grammar is much more complex than Afrikaans grammar. Vocabulary doesn't really make a language difficult to learn, and I wouldn't say there was more in Afrikaans than in Dutch. Afrikaans was Dutch 400 years ago, but it was spoken by a small group of mostly illiterate people, allowing it to modify in a manner that simplified it. It also incorporated words from the Khoi Khoi, San and east Indie people who were brought to the Cape as slaves. First Language Afrikaans speakers are required to read one Dutch book in their final year of high school, and Afrikaans musicians release records in the Netherlands. Afrikaans is actually very similar to Flemmish (spoken in parts of Belgium).

You speak now as a moderator very down to Afrikaners, who the hell do you think you are?

Mrs America?
what do you know about Dutch grammer, or Flemish for that matter?

[ches]

Originally Posted by Moonwalker

You speak now as a moderator very down to Afrikaners, who the hell do you think you are?

Someone who is proud of our heritage and not afraid to speak the truth.

[Moonwalker]

Originally Posted by ches

If your boyfriend is Afrikaans, just ask him to teach you.

Tell him: "As jy aanhou om vir my liefdesbriefies in Afrikaans te skryf dan kan jy gaan steek jou kop op 'n koei se kont en wag tot die bul jou kom holnaai."

I think you are disgusting for writing this, how could you suggest to anyone to repeat those words....also your grammar is incorrect
and then you have the audacity to call us Afrikaners ignorant....go get a life!!!!!

You call yourself a moderator....??????

[ches]

In the first place, that expression is more Kaapsevlakte Gamtaal than Afrikaans. It is amazing what happens when a language is spoken by mostly functionally illiterate people; it's almost as if the grammar rules become slack and simplified. I guess you've never spoken Afrikaans on the Cape Flats or you'd know that expressions like that are usually meant in jest.

Secondly, being a moderator does not make one have to give up their gutter sense of humour, it makes it incumbent upon one to remove and prevent personal attacks, flame wars, trolling and spam. I suggest you, as a moderator, should keep that in mind and go to a PM the next time you want to pick a fight with me.

Finally, I did not ever, once, call Afrikaans speakers or Afrikaners ignorant. I called the early Boers, prior to the arrival of the British, during a time of anarchy at the Cape and particularly in the Southeast Cape (i.e. beyond Swellendam) for the most part illiterate, which they were. It is a matter of historical fact, no doubt glossed over in an apartheid-era Afrikaners-are-God's-Chosen-People education. It is neither treason, heresy nor bad manners to regurgitate historical facts.