Start learning Afrikaans today with our handy guide. Whether you’re looking for a new language or get back into it, we present tips and advice for anyone to try
Afrikaans might not be the only language of South Africa, but it is one that is hard to separate from images of the country as a whole. A language spoken by somewhere between 15-23 million people worldwide, it is one of the biggest languages of South Africa and Namibia and, according to one popular online encyclopaedia, is the most-spoken language in the Northern and Western Cape, the first language of 8.1 million people across the country.
With this, there is a large portion of people who may grow up in South Africa never speaking it and we think that for all Afrikaans represents, it is undeniably a language entwined with history and legacy. For this reason, it deserves to be preserved and, indeed, spoken.
Here at Twinkl, we have a fair few resources to help you and your kids start your Afrikaans-learning journey, a few choice editions of which you’ll find below but one that we fully believe in, is the STOMPI method. STOMPI stands for:
- Subject
- (verb 1)
- Time
- Object
- Manner
- Place
- (verb 2)
- Infinitive
It is a simple but very effective study method that really helps to break down and simplify learning languages and sentence structure. We have even provided some easy sheets for English/Afrikaans learners to get you started.
Beyond this, we have some fantastic audio PowerPoints teaching grammar rules and vocabulary. With a broad variety covering techniques including prepositions:
And plenty beyond that. All of these resources have been teacher-created and produced fully in line with current teaching on Afrikaans. This means whether your children or you are using them, you can be guaranteed that there will be few better places to start than here with Twinkl.
But we can only lead you so far. For many, especially the further into the life they get, it can get harder to pick up second (or third) languages. For this reason, we present our guide on advice for how to start learning Afrikaans, with advice from Twinkl and also some experts in the field:
The London-based language-learning company, uTalk, alongside using their app to learn to speak and understand over 140 languages including Afrikaans, Tswana, Xhosa, and Zulu, had some short but very sweet advice about where to start with Afrikaans and how it may very well, not be learning Afrikaans:
If you’re looking into learning (or re-learning) Afrikaans, then it can be difficult to know where to start. We’d recommend beginning with pronunciation.
The fun part about Afrikaans is that if you speak Dutch or German or another Germanic language (like, say, English), you’ll already be off to a great start. Afrikaans is Dutch’s daughter language and although it’s also been influenced by neighbouring Bantu and Khoisan languages, those Germanic roots still shine through.
Get yourself some audio (preferably with a transcript) and practise listening to and, importantly, repeating what you hear. It doesn’t matter if you understand. At this point, it’s as useful to train your muscles to produce all those brand-new sounds as it is to learn new words and phrases.
Jacques du Plessis associate professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and developer of afrikaans.us had this to add:
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Focus on pronunciation first. You want to end up reading any text and know that if a group of Afrikaans speakers were listening to you, they would understand. Pay attention to the rounded vowels, and to the two forms of the G sound.
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Next, casually study the cognate lists. This knowledge will help you leap ahead.
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Do the grammar with mainly English, except the key terms. You want to not worry about vocab and produce the grammar without thinking. Focus on the present, past and future tenses, then negation and questions, and then the modal verbs.
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When you are fluent with the above, explore the conjunctions. They are verb-second conjunctions (normal sentence structure), or verb-first or verb-last conjunctions.
Present: I buy tickets to the show.
Past: I het tickets to the show gebuy.
Future: I sal tickets to the show buy.
Question:
Present: Buy I tickets to the show?
Past: Het I tickets to the show gebuy?
Future: Sal I tickets to the show buy?
w/Negation:
Present: I buy nie tickets to the show nie.
Past: I het nie tickets to the show gebuy nie.
Future: I sal nie tickets to the show buy nie.
Modal helping verbs (kan=can, wil=want to, mag=may/allowed to, moet=must)
Present: I moet tickets to the show buy.
Past: I moes tickets to the show buy.
Future: I sal tickets to the show moet buy.
Present: I buy tickets to the show.
Past: I het tickets to the show gebuy.
Future: I sal tickets to the show buy.
Andrie Steliou of the language-learning source Cudoo shared some great advice that is applicable to learning any new language:
Have you ever asked yourself this question and then thought that it is probably a long and difficult process, so you just kept putting it off?
Well, actually, by putting it off, for sure you will never learn a new language or be able to communicate when living abroad or travelling to a foreign country. To make learning easier, read these six simple steps to learn a new language in as little as six months!
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Take a language course relevant to your needs with first-language speakers. Therefore, by learning a language that is relevant, meaningful and important for your life it will serve its purpose and be less stressful.
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Right from day one, you must use this new language as a tool to communicate in your daily conversation. Don’t be shy to use simple one-word questions or answers to speak a foreign language. The person might respond by using body language or writing it down on paper, but your purpose is to communicate.
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Simply by listening to locals speak the language you will automatically begin to understand the language without even realizing it. Subconsciously, you will acquire the new language without having to make any effort. So start communicating! Find yourself a language parent. This person should have grown up speaking the language and be able to correct you while learning the new language. You will be surprised on how fast you begin speaking the new language.
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As our brain has a filter to sound, we automatically become language deaf to unknown sounds and automatically stop ourselves from listening. Therefore, we need to adapt our hearing to the new sounds. Expose yourself to the new language you would like to learn. Listen to music, watch movies, read out loud simple advertisements in newspapers/magazines, listen to audiobooks and repeat what you hear. Surround yourself with people from that culture. Restaurants, cafeterias, supermarkets, gym classes, the list is endless! The more we listen to the new language we want to learn, the more our ears filter the new sounds in, rather than filtering the unknown sounds out.
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Begin physiological training by using and coordinating your face muscles to speak and make the sounds that will be possible for the listener to understand. Copy mouth movement. This step is very important to make the correct sound for the new language.
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The psychological state of matter is the last and most important stage to learning a new language. If you are sad, angry or upset, learning will be exhausting. On the other hand, by being confident, cheerful and self-assured learning the new language will be an enjoyable experience.
Learning is a fun and memorable experience, begin your new language course today with online courses on https://cudoo.com/ and start using these six simple steps. You will be surprised with your results!
Andry Steliou Head of Linguistics May 2021
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