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Girl learning Afrikaans 4a Challenge | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Members profiles |  | |
| Theycalme_Jane Diglot Newbie United Kingdom theafrikaanschalleng Joined 4115 days ago 28 posts - 48 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 1 of 6 11 August 2013 at 6:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi,
I'm a 25 year old German, living in England, learning Afrikaans, blogging and vlogging about my progress (http://theafrikaanschallenge.wordpress.com/). I use only freely available sources. My goal is to be fluent in one year in order to complete the challenge. I aim to set out on a road trip to South Africa when I'm done. The blog motivates me to keep up the work on a regular basis. I enjoy the language, haven't got any particular plans of what to do with it when I'm done studying it, but I think the beauty of my studies also lies in the fact that it's not very commonly studied and the challenge lies in the fact that sources out there are rather scarce and I'll have to be creative to work my way through those messy websites that provide bits and pieces. I hope to gain some insights and inspiration by joining language forums like these. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5120 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes  Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 2 of 6 11 August 2013 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | ||
First, welcome. You'll like South Africa. It's by far my favorite vacation spot that I've visited. Super friendly people, interesting culture (along with some pretty horrific history that the country's still coming to grips with, depending where you are), spectacular landscape and wildlife at every turn. Although I didn't ever feel a need to use Afrikaans, I definitely heard a lot of it, so there's opportunity for good exposure. R. == Edited by hrhenry on 11 August 2013 at 9:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Syntax Bilingual Hexaglot Newbie South Africa Joined 5085 days ago 28 posts - 40 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans*, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Studies: Mandarin | Message 3 of 6 11 August 2013 at 10:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi
I haven’t used this site in ages, but randomly got two emails about this page today. I suppose I must have set up an email notification a few years back. I’m a native Afrikaans speaker and I also study German (I know it’s not in my profile, but I’ve learnt a few languages since last using this site). I’ve only been studying German for about a month, so my level isn’t very high yet. Anyway, I have a very good understanding of grammar in general, so if you ever need help with your Afrikaans, you’re welcome to ask me. I know it can be difficult to find resources to study it. :-) Hoop jy geniet jou studies... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6693 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 6 12 August 2013 at 2:18am | IP Logged | ||
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Also welcome from me. Afrikaans is one of the languages I can read and to some extent also understand in its spoken form, but it is definitely a problem to find sources that aren't mixed with English. I survive on Wikipedia and a limited number of media homepages with podcasts and written sections, like kyknet and rsg, but I have also tapped homepages with travelogues, tales about animal life in ZA and things like that. As for dictionaries I feel I have struck luck with the Pharos Tweetalige Skoolwoordeboed which I ordered a couple of years ago: even though this title doesn't promise much and the paper quality is somewhat dubious this book has covered all my needs. On the other hand I don't own a real grammar, just an old Teach Yourself book from the light blue era, so I may have missed a lot of grammatical quirks, but I am going to visit South Africa soon so maybe I can find something more precise in a bookstore there. However the low number of outside learners may be a problem - considering how many million Southafrikaners are said to use it daily. Language books written for native speakers are rarely relevant for learners - if you can find them at all, that is. Edited by Iversen on 12 August 2013 at 2:29am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5252 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 5 of 6 12 August 2013 at 2:56am | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome to the forum, Theycalme_Jane! When I used to live in England, I met a lot of native Afrikaans-speakers. There's an interesting research paper on the Afrikaans language in the UK: Language and Identity: The Afrikaans Community in the UK. There's also a free course available online designed by a native speaker from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Openlanguages Afrikaans UWM that may be of some help.
I'll be following your progress with interest. Best of luck! Edited by iguanamon on 12 August 2013 at 2:57am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Theycalme_Jane Diglot Newbie United Kingdom theafrikaanschalleng Joined 4115 days ago 28 posts - 48 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 6 of 6 12 August 2013 at 12:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi, wow, thanks for the warm welcome. First, I don't really think I'm going to need Afrikaans, but I like the sound of the language and I like how people are so much more approachable when you're showing genuine interest in their culture. I've never learnt a language and not learnt anything about the culture. (Haven't figured out how to change my language options, by the way, but I'm definitely a polyglot, not a diglot).
I have in fact found openlanguages.net and RSG myself, and am a regular listener to RSG now. I started out finding a lot of sources for my first vlog entry, but the sources aren't really very in-depth or well-maintained, so I'm basically constantly renewing the list, because information is so scattered. I've got a very long list of bookmarks now and, instead of randomly spreading them over my posts (as I did in the beginning), I'm now thinking of doing a reader's digest over a few days or weeks and then publish that in a singular post. In my videos I'm commenting on and evaluating the sources that I found helpful on my immediate studies, so people who also want to study can get an idea of how I managed personally. So far I've gotten some really nice comments on the blog, so that really keeps me going. :-) Looking forward to learning the language and if it is indeed the case that there are no more elaborate sources out there, I can still communicate with people on the net and listen to the radio and look things up in the dictionary. I'm optimistic it'll work out somehow. :-) Edited by Theycalme_Jane on 12 August 2013 at 12:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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