give afrikaans a chance
01 Sep 2009 1 Comment
in south africa Tags: afrikaans, idioms
30 August 2009
For the last 4 and a half years I have been writing stories on the widest variety of subjects imaginable for Adfero. DirectNews clients operate in lots of different markets, so I’ve written on anything from data clouds to dating and everything in between. It has been – and still is – something I love to do.
But in my current role with the company I don’t get to write that much, so when I got the opportunity to write a few freelance articles for a website back home, I jumped at the chance. What made the prospect even more appealing was that this was an Afrikaans website, so I could do something I hadn’t done for half a decade… write in my mother tongue.
I proposed writing something about how the recession and how regular South Africans could expect to be affected. It is a subject I know a fair bit about, with the UK having been in a recession officially for many months. However, South Africa only recently went into recession officially, so I thought writing about this would be a breeze. I was right. The subject matter was a doddle and coming up with a selection of top tips was a quick job. The surprise came when I had to put my thougts into words. Afrikaans words.
All of a sudden I realised that my Afrikaans vocabulary must have gradually shrunk over the last few years. When I first moved to the UK, I lived in London and had a few Afrikaans mates, including my flatmate Lindi, so speaking Afrikaans was an everyday thing. Then Lindi went back to Durbs, I met Chris and we moved to Manchester, and all of a sudden I was speaking Afrikaans a couple of times a week max, during regular phone calls back home. Sure, some days I still subject Chris to “Afrikaans days” when the poor guy is forced to learn Afrikaans due to the fact that I refuse to speak English for a few hours, but mainly, life is conducted in English.
Shocked when I had to consult a dictionary to find the correct translation and spelling for words I’ve known my whole life, I resolved to make more of an effort. I am now going to contribute to voelgoed.co.za on a regular basis and plan to make an effort to consciously inject more Afrikaans into my life. You can read my first venture back into Afrikaans writing here.
The result of thinking more about Afrikaans and reading in Afrikaans when I get the chance has been rewarding so far. All of a sudden I look at words and idioms and realise what a brilliant, rich language Afrikaans is. Some of my favourite sayings for your enjoyment:
‘n hond uit ‘n bos gesels – talk a dog out the bush (talk lots)
die draak steek – poke the dragon (poke fun at someone)
‘n gat in die mop praat – talk a whole in their head (convince someone to do something they don’t want to do)
alle grappies op ‘n stokkie – all jokes on a little stick (let’s get serious)
jakkals trou met wolf se vrou – jackal marries wolf’s wife (it’s sunny but raining at the same time)
die kat uit die boom kyk – watch the cat out the tree (consider something carefully before deciding)
oor koeitjies en kalfies gesels – chat about little cows and calfs (chatting about everyday things)
ek skrik nie vir koue pampoen nie – cold pumpkin doesn’t frighten me (to not scare easily)
meng jou met die semels, dan vreet die varke jou – mix with the barley then the pigs will eat you (if you hang out with bad company, you’ll be seen as trouble yourself)
tande tel – counting teeth (what kids do when they are sitting in grown-up conversation)
uitgeknip soos haar ma – a cut-out of her mom (when someone looks exactly like someone else)
voor op die wa – on the front of the wagon (when someone, often a child, is cheeky)
laer as slangkak se skaduwee op die seebodem – lower than the shadow of a snake’s shit on the bottom of the ocean (when someone has done something despicable)
I’m sure there are loads more that I can’t think of right now – do you have a favourite?
