Stellenbosch University Language Centre

Tag: multilingual mindset

Our mother languages: What’s in it for us?

At the SU Language Centre, we share UNESCO’s belief in the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity for sustainable societies, and we embrace the world-wide celebration of International Mother Language Day on 21 February each year.

Mother Language Day is not only about your and my individual mother languages, but also about those of the people around us. If we understand that the mother language of the person next to us is just as dear to them as our mother language is to us, and respect that, we’ve made great strides already.

Why are mother languages important, other than because we attach emotional value to the language(s) we grew up with and started expressing ourselves in? How can they be of practical use to us, even if we often function in a second or third language to ensure that we communicate in a manner that helps others to understand what we’re saying?

Mental springboards

Mother languages are mental springboards. We all use our mother language as a way to scaffold knowledge. When you acquire new knowledge, you usually start with familiar information and then journey from there into the valleys of unknown knowledge. So, if you start at a place where you know what a certain concept is in your mother language, you have somewhere to kick in your heels and get purchase, and you can use that familiarity as a springboard from where to understand more complex concepts, even when offered in a different language than your mother language.

Therefore, students can, and should, use their mother languages at university, even if their language is not one of the official learning and teaching languages of the institution. If we think of SU, the University has committed to using English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa – the official languages of the Western Cape. Afrikaans and English are the primary languages of learning, teaching and assessment. IsiXhosa may also be used in learning and teaching, where there is capacity and lecturers find it appropriate to use it, and where there is a pedagogical need. The University is committed to developing isiXhosa as an academic language, as well as to maintaining Afrikaans as a language of teaching, learning, assessment and research. SU is also one of the few South African universities aiming to develop and promote South African Sign Language. This is all part of a national mandate for tertiary institutions to adopt at least one African language, where we focus our resources on that language, while at the same time maintaining what we’ve already developed. This is an important way for us to bring the South African Constitution to life. By respecting languages at a tertiary level, we raise their status.

SU students and staff are indeed a far more diverse bunch than only English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa speakers, but working with the most common mother languages in the Western Cape is a starting point. And other South African universities have committed to develop at least one of the official South African languages in their regions. This way, speakers of isiZulu could, for example, also benefit from resources in isiXhosa, as those languages are closely related, and the same applies to other closely related languages. But we as mother language speakers need to choose to use our languages ourselves when the opportunity arises.

Raising the status

If we want to maintain, extend and raise the status of our languages, there are two overarching ways to do it. One way is by writing in that language – through the creation of literature – showing that your language is capable of expressing abstract thought and creative and complex ideas, and that it is flexible enough to do so. The second way is through creating terminology to describe new technical domains.

Probably every single language apart from English (as terminology seems to be created in English far more naturally as part of the process of new inventions and developments) needs to continually raise its status to keep up in our modern world. Every other language, whether French, German, Chinese, Afrikaans or isiXhosa, has the challenge to try to keep pace, and English itself doesn’t even always stay ahead! Also, English might possess the terminology, but the meanings of those words are not always so transparent. Terminology in isiXhosa, Afrikaans or even French is often much more descriptive and therefore more transparent to the speakers of that language. Think of “koppelaar” in Afrikaans for “clutch”, or the isiZulu word for “bill”, “umthethosivivinywa”, literally “a law in process”.  There are so many other examples. But do we choose to embrace and use those beautiful words, or do we revert to English automatically?

A great benefit of raising the status of a language and using various languages is that we make our environments more inclusive. Seeing and experiencing their languages in different spaces remind people that they are part of something bigger than themselves.

Different sides of the same coin

As we celebrate Mother Language Day this year, perhaps we should start pondering the following two questions: What does your mother language do for you, and what do you do for your mother language? When you use your mother language for learning, in everyday life and in official matters, you’re not only helping yourself but also supporting and preserving your language’s heritage. Your use of the language keeps it alive and ensures it continues for the future.

And then, when we take another step forward, namely to start learning each other’s mother languages, we support and strengthen those languages even more, while finding new ways to understand and appreciate each other.

– by Susan Lotz, Dr Kim Wallmach, Sanet de Jager and Jackie van Wyk

 

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Resources for advancing a multilingual mindset in SU environments

The Language Centre’s mandate to the University is to promote multilingualism and provide language support. We therefore strive to embody a multilingual mindset and to share this mindset with the rest of the University. At the same time, we acknowledge that the whole of the SU community shares responsibility for creating an inclusive and multilingual environment, and we’d like to inspire both staff and students to find practical ways to implement multilingualism.

This document contains practical information to help you along on the way to a multilingual mindset in your environment at SU – from brochures to links to websites, videos, podcasts and blogs.

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Brochures on a multilingual mindset are available in the three languages used at the University:

A multilingual mindset (English)

A multilingual mindset (Afrikaans)

A multilingual mindset (isiXhosa)

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Visit the Language Centre’s trilingual terminology portal for subject terminology in Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa here.

There are also a multitude of language resources available here, among others, an Afrikaans-English translation equivalents list curated by the Language Centre’s Language Service.

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Quick contacts for assistance with multilingualism

 The Language Centre is here to support you:

For broader discussions about implementing multilingualism in a space or environment, please don’t hesitate to contact us! Dr Kim Wallmach, kimwallmach@sun.ac.za, Susan Lotz, slotz@sun.ac.za or Sanet de Jager, sdejager@sun.ac.za.

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Creative ways to give your invites a multilingual look and feel

The Language Centre’s mandate to the University is to promote multilingualism and provide language support. The Language Centre therefore strives to embody a multilingual mindset and to share this mindset with the rest of the University.

Invitations to events are great opportunities to include all three languages used at the University. There is no need to repeat everything in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa, but you can selectively add or highlight information in, say, Afrikaans and isiXhosa if your invite’s back bone is in English. If your guiding principle is inclusion and not exclusion, you can’t go wrong.

Use these invites as inspiration, and let us know if you have more suggestions:

 

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Mother Language Day 2022: Let’s look beyond our own language

 

International Mother Language Day poster

We celebrate International Mother Language Day on 21 February each year. It is appropriate to take time on that day to celebrate that first language; the one that allowed each of us to start sharing how we experience the world. Many people are so used to doing business in their mother language every day that they don’t think anything of it. Others do not have that luxury.

An alternative way of celebrating our own mother language is to reach out and intentionally learn and use the mother languages of the people around us. From this year, we are privileged to receive (and create) all official communication to the entire SU in the three official languages of our province: English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa. This means many more isiXhosa translations taking place than ever before at the University. And even if it’s not official communication, many of us would like to be inclusive and embrace multilingualism wherever possible in University spaces.

The fact is, however, that very few SU staff members can produce material in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa single-handedly. We all need some language support. And support there is, in many guises and forms. The resources one would harness depend, among other things, on what the material in question would be used for. The wider the intended audience and the more permanent the material, the more careful one should be about ensuring the quality of the translation. This also applies to information that may be legally binding or life changing – or life threatening if misunderstood.

Google Translate may be particularly handy to get the gist of a word, phrase or piece of writing in passing. But we must remember that, however wondrous it is that a machine can ‘translate’, it has its limitations. And if we, as the users of this technology, don’t understand its limitations and factor in the risks associated with those limitations, we might be the ones who look like fools in the end. Machine translation cannot derive context. And often context is everything.

A recent, classic example is a case of campus signage in isiXhosa that was meant to denote some urinals in a building on campus. Google Translate was consulted, and the output, which went as far as the layout phase at the printers, would have left us all somewhat embarrassed if the equivalent of that machine-translated signage were to be put up for all to see in our various mother languages. Fortunately disaster was averted just in time, a language practitioner was consulted and today one can find those facilities on campus in acceptable, clear isiXhosa in addition to English and Afrikaans.

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A better way of sourcing translations would be to engage a language professional from the start. The University has a whole Language Service at hand at the Language Centre, ready to translate, edit or advise on language matters.”

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To ensure the best outcome for translation into isiXhosa specifically, it would help to know the following when planning a translation:

  • IsiXhosa is an agglutinative language: It combines many more elements in one word than an uninitiated English or Afrikaans person would imagine possible – think of singathanda, which means ‘we would like’, for example. This quality could result in very long isiXhosa words, and possibly even one-word sentences.
  • IsiXhosa is also a language in which much paraphrasing takes place, like in French. Compounding is seldom used – ‘desk drawer’ would be paraphrased as ‘the drawer of a desk’ in French, for instance. Similarly one would rather say ‘centre of language’ (iziko leelwimi) than ‘language centre’ in isiXhosa. This quality brings great richness to the language if applied in an agile manner, and could require that one needs to explain some English terms so that the isiXhosa translator can paraphrase into isiXhosa.
  • Written isiXhosa requires at least 20% more space than its English and Afrikaans counterparts. Your translation will always be longer than your source material. The above two points might have given you some clues as to why that would be the case.
  • Loan words (borrowed words) are not always the best translation solutions. Often they disrupt the flow of the language – like anglisismes do in Afrikaans. Some isiXhosa translators are able to create excellent descriptive solutions that enrich the language and encapsulate the meaning perfectly, without compromising the readability of the material. Get a translator like that on your team!
  • New terminology is being developed for the new spheres in which we are starting to use isiXhosa at the University. Choose your translator well, one who is part of a network of translators – a community of practice – who consult each other and existing reputable sources about translation equivalents and terms.
  • Consultation takes time – an isiXhosa translation may take longer than an English or Afrikaans translation of the same source material. Therefore, start early!

At SU, we all can be part of this opportunity to develop isiXhosa further, mother language or not. We will not be able to do this on our own, each in their own silo. But if we work together to develop a multilingual mindset at SU and share what we’ve learnt as we make progress, there is wonderful potential.

Try to honour someone else’s mother language this year. In the process, you will most probably develop an even deeper appreciation of your own …

– by Susan Lotz, inspired by the Language Centre’s isiXhosa work group

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The ripple effect of language

Most of us don’t think much about language in the abstract as we go about our everyday lives. And yet, the language we use in our studies, in work contexts and in our personal relationships shapes perceptions of who we are, how we like to be in the world, and what matters most to us.

How we communicate influences and changes the world around us, creating ripples across the surface of our lives.

But we don’t all know how to do it well, and we forget that communication is not only about what we say, but about also how it is received, and by whom. We all have different ways of thinking and understanding, and different backgrounds and experiences.

So, improving communication isn’t just about increasing vocabulary or perfecting punctuation. It’s about understanding the beings we share the world with, building meaningful relationships, fostering community, and creating a life worth living.

Here are three deceptively simple ways that language can help change your life:

1. POPIA compliance? Say what you have to say simply and in plain language.

An effective message needs to be beautifully crafted and written in plain language. As the famous double bass player and jazz musician Charlie Mingus once said: “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) came into full effect on 1 July 2021 in South Africa, and resulted in a flood of incomprehensible legalese around POPIA compliance like the following:

“From 1 July 2021, today, the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) comes into effect.[…]  As such, you are herewith notified that you are entitled to refuse such consent and that you may exercise such a right by leaving this group/unsubscribe by clicking on the link at the bottom of this email.”

If you would like to really connect with people, avoid incomprehensible jargon and say exactly what you mean. You might even want to thank them for participating. Like this:

“As you may already know, the introduction of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) came into full effect on 1 July 2021 in South Africa. […] If you’d still like to continue receiving our newsletters and updates, then you don’t need to do a thing and you’ll continue to hear from us. If you would prefer not to receive this type of communication from us any longer, then you are welcome to click on the unsubscribe button at the bottom of this page.

Thank you for being part of the community we are building.”

2. Use ‘we’ and ‘our’, not ‘I’ and ‘you’: Create connection, not distance between people.

We can all get in our own way, sometimes. Successful presidents and CEOs know that the best way to bridge differences between people is to tell a simple human story around shared values. Using ‘we’ and ‘our’, not ‘I’ and ‘you’ connects people to one another, as President Nelson Mandela knew when he delivered his inaugural address to the South African people and his international guests on 10 May, 1994:

“Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity’s belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.

All this we owe both to ourselves and to the peoples of the world who are so well represented here today.

To my compatriots, I have no hesitation in saying that each one of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld.”

Mandela was able to speak for a ‘we’, a people that could be seen as connected to the South African soil and its community of citizens, despite their diversity. This was a master stroke, and spoke to a natural order of things, the land, that everyone could connect to.

3. Greet someone in their language, not yours. Cultivate a multilingual mindset.

Greeting someone in their language shows that you care enough about their culture to learn a bit about it, and opens doors that might otherwise be closed to you.

Even a simple greeting reflects our culture and way of thinking. For instance, in some cultures, a nod or a smile are considered a sufficient greeting. Not so in African cultures. Nodding or smiling to someone you meet in a queue or in the street, or even a simple “Hello” without a “How are you?” is often seen as impolite in South Africa. This is a throwback to the full richness of traditional greetings which include an enquiry about the wellbeing of the person and their family (and even their ancestors), like this greeting in isiZulu:

Sawubona. Ninjani? This translates to: Hello (literally: We see you). How are you?

Multilingualism is about more than being willing to learn and use multiple languages. It’s also a mindset. It equips us to draw on broader and more diverse experiences, and to engage with society in a way that speaks to the heart, not just the mind.

As anyone who has ever ventured to learn a new language knows, the learning experience can transform your life. As your experience of a language in its cultural context expands, you will find that you do not keep these languages and cultures in strictly separated mental compartments, but rather build up a communicative, plurilingual competence to which all your knowledge and experience of language contribute, and in which languages interrelate and interact.

Like ripples in a pool of water, language has some unexpected and truly marvellous effects.

– by Kim Wallmach

Dr Kim Wallmach is the Director of the Language Centre at Stellenbosch University. She thanks her colleagues in the Departments of Afrikaans and Dutch, Curriculum Studies, Modern Languages, and at the Language Centre for their input on the value of multilingualism.

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ripple effect (noun)

the effect of one event setting off other events in an unexpected way, or unexpected areas.

Etymology: by analogy with the spreading ripples on the surface of a body of water when a stone is thrown in.
Source: https://www.definitions.net/definition/ripple+effect

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A musing on the freedom language brings

Imagine a world without language. Is that even possible to imagine? Isn’t language so intertwined with thinking that it’s no use trying to think if you don’t think in language? How would you access your own thoughts and communicate them if it’s not encoded in some kind of language?

In his book The language instinct, Steven Pinker thinks along the same lines when he writes: “Language is so tightly woven into human experience that it is scarcely possible to imagine life without it. Chances are that if you find two or more people together anywhere on earth, they will soon be exchanging words” – or signs. Deaf people use signed languages just as hearing people use spoken languages: to laugh, to cry and to celebrate, and the result can be just as emotive, and just as creative.

The very thought that we can’t really resist sharing our language instinct with others makes one think of the wonderful freedom that language itself and the ability to use it brings. Language frees the thoughts in our own heads by giving us a vehicle with which to articulate them, and, in the process, possibly delight (or burden) someone else. Language gives the prospect of expression, of being heard, and, therefore, of connection. Different languages may be governed by different grammatical rules and conventions, but the wide open freedom that lies in the ability to use language and create something that no-one else has ever said in quite that way is truly something to marvel at. Think of poems, thought pieces, blogs, essays or books on the same topic by different authors: the same golden thread may run through them, but there are so many different ways of expression. Doesn’t this thought make you want to start writing something immediately?

We’re experiencing a time in which our freedom of movement and freedom of association are being challenged by the risk of infection. While some of our physical freedoms are currently restricted to curb the spread of the pandemic we’re facing, our intellectual freedom is unfettered.

In honour of Freedom Day this year, we at the Language Centre choose to celebrate the freedom we have in language – the infinite possibilities language brings as we express ourselves, connect with one another and live our lives, even if our physical radius is – temporarily – smaller.

– by Susan Lotz and Kim Wallmach

Full reference: Pinker, Steven. 1994. The language instinct: The new science of language and mind. Penguin Books: London. 3

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Let’s celebrate the first one

It’s most probably the language in which you’d swear when you get a very sudden fright. Chances are that you also dream in this language. If you’re lucky, you’ll know nursery rhymes in it, and maybe even a few archaic idioms and made-up words…

One’s mother tongue is an almost instinctive language – often it’s knowledge that one just seems to have as an adult, deeply embedded to emerge at the strangest of times. It is fitting to have an international day to mark this very personal and precious resource that helps us to make sense of the world. One’s mother tongue, or first language, also serves as a springboard for learning more languages – at times so successfully that some people eventually find it hard to distinguish between their first and second language.

International Mother Language Day is celebrated on 21 February each year. Honouring this day gives us at the Language Centre great joy and confirms our purpose at a deep level. Language starts with the first language you learn, and the wonder of that first language lives on and through all the other languages you open yourself up for. When you learn to speak and write in a language other than your mother tongue, it stimulates and expands intercultural experiences and dialogue between people. We strongly believe that knowledge of and a passion for different languages can contribute to stronger relationships between people, cultures and organisations. When we promote and nurture language proficiency at the Language Centre, we encourage our students and clients to go all out to learn other languages with us – be it isiXhosa, Afrikaans or English.

International Mother Language Day invites each and every one of us to stop for a moment and reflect; to think back how it all started for each one of us, linguistically. What is your relationship with the language that first enabled you to name your world? This day gives us an opportunity to honour and appreciate that personal and individual starting point. Marking this day helps to preserve our respective heritages, and encourages us to become part of a linguistically diverse, multilingual and culturally rich society. It all starts with that very important first one, though: the mother of languages.

– by Susan Lotz, Kim Wallmach and Zandile Kondowe

International Mother Language Day poster
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