“What languages do you speak in South Africa? French?” “Well, English and Afrikaans are two of the 11 official languages.” “What is Africans like?” “Um, no… Afrikaans. Anyway…” 5b423x

“I love it when you speak foreign.”

It’s not easy to explain Afrikaans to people, especially when you’re explaining it in your third language to someone who isn’t much of an English speaker. To make matters worse, “Afrikaans” and “Africans” are spelt the same in Japanese: ?????? (Afurikansu).

But communication is a powerful thing, and getting my meaning across is the greatest reward I get for studying Japanese. (I used to think it was getting fed, which is now a close second). So I knew I had to try and get my point across, somehow.

When a co-worker recently asked me about South African languages, I tried explaining what I meant by writing it out in Japanese and emphasising the sounds:
??????? (Afurikansugo. ? means language and is pronounced “go”, as in “Go forth teach.”)
And he understood. That was a big deal for me, especially since South Africa has been in the spotlight recently with Mandela’s death, 20 years of democracy and, unfortunately, Oscars fall from fame.

Now my next trick will be to teach my kids that there’s no such thing as a “raion”.