Stellenbosch University Language Centre

Tag: isiXhosa course

IsiXhosa language and culture

IsiXhosa Language and Culture is a fun-filled 14-week course offering international students a linguistic and cultural taste of Xhosa as a language in a wider cultural context.

This is a semester course offered twice a year during the official semester period of the University.

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IsiXhosa language and culture

IsiXhosa Language and Culture is a fun-filled 14-week course offering international students a linguistic and cultural taste of Xhosa as a language in a wider cultural context.

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How about doing the click in celebration of Human Rights Day?

On 23 February, the Minister of Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthwethwa, announced new names for some cities and towns in the Eastern Cape. Among them are Port Elizabeth, now Gqeberha; Maclear, now Nqanqarhu; and King William’s Town, which will be known as iQoonce in future. Most people – whether they speak English, Afrikaans or even isiXhosa – are quite intimidated by the click sounds in these new names, and are hesitant to even try to pronounce them. The renaming seems not to have been well received, and there are people who are petitioning to reverse the name changes.

But could one find something positive in this?

Zandile Kondowe, isiXhosa lecturer at the Language Centre, has indeed had a heart-warming experience. When she discussed the new names with some of her current and former students, they were very engaged – also on social media. It wasn’t long before they jumped in and started teaching others how to pronounce the new names and how to grow to love them. “This way, these students did not only show respect to me as their isiXhosa teacher, but they also honoured all isiXhosa speakers and showed how they valued the isiXhosa language and culture. Seeing their commitment reminded me of Neville Alexander, who was a great advocate for using African languages in powerful ways and in different social domains.”

To Zandile, her students’ commitment is a wonderful example of showing respect for human rights, as well: “Instead of criticising the way in which the new town names are pronounced, they took it upon themselves to learn how to pronounce them and then reached out to help those who had trouble pronouncing them.”

Zandile would like to invite anyone who feels unsure about pronouncing those names here at Stellenbosch University to e-mail her at kondowe@sun.ac.za. “We would love to teach you how to pronounce the names, and we have some great interactive isiXhosa short courses you can join, too!”

Have a look at the videos by some of Zandile’s students to get ready for those clicks!

Adnene Janse van Rensburg helps us to click away:

And here we have some more help from Austin Pepar:

– by Zandile Kondowe and Susan Lotz

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So, what does the Language Centre actually do?

The Language Centre is a vibrant hub for students, staff and clients who require language and communication assistance.

One of our most important jobs is to help students speak university. Although academic language is no-one’s mother tongue, you could get by very well once you’ve learnt its ins and outs.

We assist students to get there, in many different language-related ways:

  • We present credit-bearing academic literacies modules in seven of the University’s 10 faculties to equip our students for strategic communication – in an academic setting and in their occupation and industry. Modules focus on professional, business and scientific communication, writing skills and skills for academic discourse.
  • We provide real-time interpreting in lectures – in Afrikaans, English, isiXhosa or South African Sign Language.
  • We’ve created a safe space to discuss one’s writing with a trained writing consultant at our Writing Lab, as well as opportunities to create writing support groups, take part in writing marathons, or attend workshops on writing research proposals, literature reviews, journal articles or other academic writing.
  • We’ve established a Reading Lab that offers workshops, consultations and a visual cognitive processing program to optimise reading.
  • We’ve built a trilingual terminology tool for subject terminology in Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa – try it out here.
  • We present various courses to local and international students aimed at either enhancing skills in a language or acquiring a new language, such as the English for Academic Purposes Programme (EAP) and the Intensive English Programme (IEP), or tailored Afrikaans and isiXhosa We even have a Language Learning Hub for social language learning.

The Language Centre also casts its language and communication assistance net wider than the student community:

  • We offer an editing and translation service in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa, and we translate into more than 12 other languages. Our services are available to the University, corporate clients and individuals, and we can edit and translate any document – from letters, reports, journal articles and advertisement copy to informed consent forms. In addition, we do transcriptions.
  • We provide an interpreting service at meetings or conferences. We work in Afrikaans, English, isiXhosa and German, but you could speak to us about other language combinations too.
  • We offer language courses aimed at individuals or groups who would like to learn isiXhosa or Afrikaans, or prepare themselves for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam, or who wish to gain the skills to teach English as a foreign language (TEFL).
  • We also present superbly crafted corporate communication short courses through our Comms Lab. Think: effective office documentation, report writing, writing for the media, or crafting confident presentations, to name but a few possibilities.

For us, language creates a transformational space that has the power to change lives, inform policy and unite people. If one of our services or courses appeals to you, speak to us at taalsentrum@sun.ac.za or 021 808 2176.

Great things happen when you work with us!

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