Stellenbosch University Language Centre

Tag: multilingualism

So many kinds of freedom

“I never even knew that that kind of personal freedom existed, because I had never experienced it before …”

Liselotte Voets, a Belgian exchange student from KU Leuven  (Catholic University of Leuven) who visited SU last year as part of her studies towards a master’s degree in philosophy, attended the Language Centre’s Afrikaans course for Dutch-speaking students while she was in South Africa.

In celebration of Freedom Day on 27 April, she shares her thoughts about freedom with us, originally in Afrikaans, but translated into English below.

My exchange visit of five and a half months in Stellenbosch kicked off in February 2022. Choosing South Africa was obvious to me: the cultures, the people, the scenery, the history, the mountains and the climate appealed to me. All these aspects naturally made a huge positive impression on me. One result of my visit I had not expected, is the new way in which I now look at the concept of freedom. If I had to explain in an intuitive way how I experienced freedom in South Africa, I would first of all mention the landscape. In my opinion, the vastness of the country represents in a very symbolical way what it means to be free in South Africa. There are still so many open spaces that can be filled. The possibilities seem to be endless. If one compares it with Belgium, where I am from, you have to conclude that most of Belgium has been built up. It really is a challenge to find a piece of open land from where one can see the horizon across an open expanse; where everything is not covered with walls, houses, streets, towns and cities.

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 It feels as if one is being watched – always and everywhere – and as if you can’t escape and commune with nature.”

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Now that I’m back in Belgium, I find it even more difficult to endure, and I miss South Africa so much more. Of course, in Belgium we have more (a feeling of) safety and security. The price we have to pay for it is our personal freedom. However, I never even knew that that kind of personal freedom existed, because I had never experienced it before. Perhaps it is also typical of Europeans to regard the kind of freedom we know as the only kind of freedom and not to leave room for other interpretations. But this is actually a contradiction in terms. I should have known that ‘freedom’ can’t be encapsulated in a single viewpoint. I’ve also noticed this kind of personal freedom in the South Africans I’ve met: they are not being lived (their lives are not being ruled and regulated), but they live on their own accord; they welcome others with open arms and start each day courageously. This great personal freedom in South Africa seems to come at a price, though, and is something that should absolutely not be underestimated: many people are left to their own devices – to fend for themselves. They need to survive on their own. Seen from that perspective, my impression was that some South Africans see the South African landscape more as a kind of emptiness than an open future. I think, and sincerely hope, that this can still change.

Blog by Liselotte Voets; translated by Ingrid Swanepoel

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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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Mother language, heart language

Mother Language Day: A day dedicated to the language in which our very first thoughts were verbalised – that’s a world we can believe in. We’re so different, but this is something that we all share.

Our mother language is regarded as the language we hear most as a baby and toddler, and it’s usually the language of the mother figure who was responsible for us when we were very little. It’s also the language in which we would have said our first words, and the language that has, while we were acquiring it, established the blueprint for all the languages that we may learn later in life. Some people may even have two languages as mother languages, particularly when they come from a multilingual household.

Mother Language Day creates a space for us to reflect on that very foundation of our language repertoire – something that also influences how we interact with the world around us. It’s about a very deep emotional connection with our own language instinct, yes, but it’s also about where language can take us. When we connect with others, we bring our own language repertoire to the table. Our mother language becomes intertwined with the languages we use in other spaces, for instance in the workplace. One could choose not to acknowledge this multidimensionality and suppress parts of oneself – however, recognising the richness of different experiences, ways of expression and points of view makes for much stronger and more agile individuals and teams that can communicate better with each other and with those they serve.

In celebration of this unique strength and sense of possibility within each of us, some Language Centre staff shared something of their connection to their mother language:

The connection with identity

[us_cta title=”” color=”light” btn_label=””]“I like to think of isiXhosa as my identity. I grew up loving my language without even realising it. That reflected in my essay writing or book analysis in high school. I even had a book where I would write isiXhosa poems. I remember my teacher showing off to her colleague about a book I had analysed while I was doing Grade 11. I would say it was all of this that inspired me to want to know and learn more about my language, as I ended up majoring in isiXhosa even at university. And at that time, I didn’t even know that there are several jobs other than teaching that one could do with language, but I continued to study isiXhosa because of my love and passion for the language.”
– Asiphe Sogiba, isiXhosa interpreter[/us_cta]

The joy of sharing it

[us_cta title=”” btn_label=””]“I am proudly Afrikaans. I grew up with a West Coast father who taught me words like ‘snoek’, ‘bokkoms’ [salted and dried mullet or harder, also known as Cape biltong] and ‘galjoen’ [galleon]. Today I still use his favourite expression, ‘Siesa Skipper!’, when someone has done something well.
I am now a lecturer with the privilege of teaching international students Afrikaans. The enthusiasm with which they learn my mother language astounds me time and again. And everything is ‘LEKKER’ [very enjoyable] to them! Nelson Mandela’s words, ‘If you talk to a man in his language, that goes to his heart’, are so true. I regard it as my calling in life to touch people’s hearts by introducing them to my mother language.”
– Dr Vernita Beukes, Afrikaans lecturer
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A reflection of its speakers

[us_cta title=”” color=”light” btn_label=””]“My mother language is English, and my father language is English too. That makes me different in my home country South Africa, where only around five per cent of the population have English as a first language.

Language has been a passion for me since I was very young. I first started my language journey paying extra attention to convoluted English spelling and pronunciation, and just loved trying to wrap my head around its difficulties. Very soon, though, as I began to learn French, Afrikaans and a bit of isiZulu, English became my guide in mapping out how languages differ from each other.

I slowly began to understand the richness that learning many languages brings; that the Englishness of beating around the bush and being polite had its origins in the French spoken in the royal court in England until a century or so ago, and left its traces in words like ‘courtesy’, ‘liberty’, ‘fraternity’, ‘equality’ and ‘university’, and many more words relating to civilisation, education and the law. I learned that the blunt Celtic earthiness of words like ‘quaff’, ‘drink’ and ‘sit’ were part of English’s Germanic roots and were echoed in the directness of Germanic languages like Afrikaans and German. And, to my surprise, words of isiZulu origin like ‘indaba’ (conference, news) and ‘donga’ (a dry gully formed by the eroding action of running water), ‘babbelas’ (hangover, from the Zulu ibhabhalazi), ‘bonsella’ (surprise gift) were also part of the fabric of my variety of English, spoken at the southern tip of the African continent. My English, learned in my hometown of Johannesburg, also reflects the many immigrant cultures attracted to this mining town, where hustling is still the name of the game. So for me, Yiddish words used in SA English like ‘chutzpah’, ‘schmuck’, ‘kugel’, ‘bagel’, ‘shabbat’, ‘platz’ and ‘meshugge’ add a richness to my vocabulary and are like treasures waiting to be discovered.”
– Dr Kim Wallmach, Director of the Language Centre [/us_cta]

A sense of coming home

[us_cta title=”” btn_label=””]“Afrikaans is something I learnt from my mother. She had a voice like a bell, and she spoke Afrikaans with the unpretentiousness and honesty of the Sutherland Karoo where she grew up – the Afrikaans of NP van Wyk Louw. During a recent family holiday in Swakopmund I was struck by how different it was there and how much I felt at home, all at once. One hears Afrikaans everywhere: in the street, in a conversation between two Herero women clad in traditional garb; from the Ovambo barista in the coffee shop: ‘Is mevrou al gehelp … wat gaan dit vandag wees?’ [‘Have you been served yet … what will it be today?’]. A woman ordering her coffee stands next to me and spontaneously starts chatting. Later she sits next to me and shows me photos of the Spitzkoppe. She says she grew up in Namibia, but lived in the Republic for most of her adult life. She has now returned and would soon start teaching at a school in Windhoek. Her words echo my own experience: ‘It feels like I’ve come home … I can breathe here.’ In my case, this feeling had a lot to do with the fact that I could hear my language everywhere; spoken spontaneously and unselfconsciously: beautiful – mooi – Afrikaans.

While on a cycling tour through the Tsauchab river, I remarked to the Damara tour guide and my family how pretty the tamarisk trees in the riverbed were. In Afrikaans, a riverbed is a ‘rivierloop’, and the word ‘loop’ also means ‘to walk’ or ‘to flow or run’, in the case of a liquid. One of my children replied: ‘Hier is nie water nie, hoekom sê Mamma die rivier loop? [‘There is no water here – why do you say the river is flowing?’] The tour guide stopped everyone and got off his bicycle. He spoke to the children: ‘Your mother speaks Afrikaans beautifully – mooi Afrikaans. That is something you children should never lose.’ When I asked him about his linguistic background, he replied that his family spoke Damara and English, and even a little German. ‘Maar ons praat Afrikaans as ons lus is om Afrikaans te praat, as ons móói wil praat.’ [‘But we speak Afrikaans when we feel like speaking Afrikaans; when we want to speak beautifully.’]

To me, that Damara man was one of the highlights of our holiday. In his company, there was a general relaxed feeling, a sense of friendship, of familiarity and of mutual understanding; and even a sense of happiness. As I watched him cycling energetically ahead of me along the dusty path, I knew this: My beautiful – mooi – language is flourishing, just like the delicate, tough tamarisks in the dry riverbed of the Tsauchab.”
– Dr Carmen Brewis, interpreter and researcher
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The language within

 

We also have a poem to share, and we chose not to translate the poem, but rather share it in its original Afrikaans form. This poem is about language as one’s heritage and how one’s language mentors (parents, teachers) also have a profound influence on what one regards as your own.

My taal, my erfenis

 Afrikaaps is nie my taal nie.
Sommige woorde kan ek nie verstaan nie.
My taal
het ek geleer van kindsbeen af
saam met die klingel en tongklap
van die aksent
wat my streek rojaal kweek.

Daar het ek begin verstaan
en geleer my ma en pa se taal.
Met my Afrikaanse onnie
wat berispend die spelreëls aanhaal,
nie tjent nie, maar kind,
nie tjy nie, maar jy.
Idiome sou ek goed onthou:
Iemand wat hard werk
is ʼn werkesel,
anders was dit die rottang vir jou.

My taal kom uit die boeke wat ek lees.
Tussen die blaaie
kon ek kies om iemand anders te wees.
Daar in die stilte van my drome
sonder die kletterende lawaai
in ʼn omgewing sonder energie belaai,
kry my taal sy lêplek
daar sonder die tjy en tjou,
daar lewe ek.

My komvandaan is eenvoudig,
tog is alles volop rondom en binne my.
Daar teen die Weskus het ek my asem gekry.
Daar is taal in my erfenis gebrei.
Nou kruip en klou
die wortels van my taal
diep en welig
sonder ophef of kabaal
lewe dit uit my pen
koester dit die erfenis wat ek ken.

– Anne-Mari Lackay, Writing Lab consultation coordinator

At the Language Centre we believe that it is language that brings us together, and we will keep on connecting people by improving communication and understanding.

Blog by Susan Lotz and Dr Kim Wallmach; translated by Ingrid Swanepoel

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Guide for lecturers: Introduction to real-time online interpreting

Calling all lecturers!

Does your faculty’s language implementation plan call for interpreting in your module? Would you like to use interpreting to meet a pedagogical need, or to create a space for multilingual teaching and learning?

The short video below explains how you can easily make use of real-time online interpreting. Follow this step-by-step guide with clips showing the MS Teams set-up and what it looks like on the extended learning spaces (ELS) system in the classroom to get set up in under seven minutes.

Why is multilingualism important in teaching, learning and assessment?

Teaching and learning in different languages, for example in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa, as opposed to choosing only one language of teaching and learning, give students the opportunity to approach learning material from different perspectives and to find the way that resonates best with their learning style. It also allows for more voices to be heard authentically and is a critical enabler for students to co-create knowledge in the teaching and learning space.

For more information or to find out whether your module qualifies for interpreting, please contact Juanli Theron or Christine Joubert.

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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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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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Ten hacks for expanding your vocabulary

Your active vocabulary – the words you use – and the way you communicate may increase or decrease the extent of your influence and your chances of success. Here are ten ways to learn more words and be more successful in life.  

Learn more words in your mother language:   

1. Eat a dictionary. Yeah, that was a joke. But you could read one!  

2. Be strategic about increasing your vocabulary and expanding your language ability. It will not happen by itself.  

3. Talk to older people. They may have a huge active vocab. Learn from them.   

4. Watch series and listen to podcasts. Take note of words you don’t yet use and write them down. Look them up. Take the plunge and start using them!   

5. Use the privilege of reading: on the internet, newspapers, magazines and books. Start with topics that you like; it will work better for you and you’ll be more likely to continue reading.  

 6. Be curious about words. Look up those you don’t know and try to use them. Always guess prefixes and suffixes and then check. Play word games.   

7. Be confident when you try out a new word. People will correct you if you get it wrong, but don’t get discouraged or intimidated. Next time you’ll use it correctly!  

Learn more words in another language:   

8. Expose yourself to a multilingual context. Go for diversity!  

9. Talk to somebody without using any English. Try to make yourself clear.  

10. Use all your resources: mother language speakers, technology, old-fashioned flash cards, our Language Learning Hub, discussion groups, movies with subtitles, and audiobooks or podcasts when you are commuting or even doing the dishes. Focus on topics that interest you and you’ll enjoy it more.  

– by Ydalene Coetsee

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A mosaic of experiences at the oldest university in the world

Sanet de Jager, a Language Centre interpreter, took part in the University’s mobility project, through which SU students and staff can participate in exchange programmes for international exposure. Sanet spent three months at the University of Bologna in Italy, and we recently caught up with her and asked her to tell us a bit more.

How did it all happen?
“I first heard about the exchange from our director, Dr Kim Wallmach, at an Interpreting Service research portfolio meeting. I applied for the Erasmus+ exchange with the International Office and a month later, in May 2019, I found myself in a country steeped in history, where a wealth of research has been done, and where one-euro espressos abound. My role in the exchange was two-fold: I went in my capacity as interpreter at the Language Centre (LC) to make valuable connections and exchange knowledge on best practice, and I went in my capacity as student to do research for my master’s in translation. My research involves a case study on the differences in intonation between interpreted and normal speech.”

Where were you based?
“The Department of Interpreting and Translation (DIT) of the University of Bologna is located in the Romanesque town of Forlì about an hour’s train ride from Bologna. That was the place I called home. Chatting to my coordinator Prof Mariachiara Russo, it became clear that ‘language politics’ is not a phenomenon unique to South Africa. The University often receives exchange students and as a result teaches some of its classes in English – a cause for raised eyebrows in a country that encourages mother-tongue access to education for its citizens.”

What did you do there?
“Dr Wallmach and I had the privilege of sharing with them in a presentation on how Stellenbosch University (SU) tackles the issue of multilingualism and how the LC offers multidimensional solutions to language challenges, with one such solution being educational interpreting. I spoke about the day-to-day activities of an educational interpreter, sharing our quality assessment measures, our training, scheduling, and up-to-date research on the role of the interpreter. The DIT seemed particularly interested in our Interpreting Service, so much so that Prof Russo visited SU at the end of July to experience educational interpreting at first-hand and to investigate the potential of starting an interpreting pilot project at the University of Bologna from within the DIT.”

And your studies? Are you happy with your progress?
“Prof Russo is a professor at the DIT and has published extensively on aptitude testing for interpreting, among other things. I enjoyed speaking to her and Prof Motoko Ueyama, a researcher on second-language intonation, about my MA research, investigating the implications of intonation on the quality of the interpreting product and how sentence-level intonation affects comprehension and information structuring. I have already completed my data collection in the form of recordings among my own colleagues, and I have recorded and incorporated the contributions of Profs Russo and Ueyama. Coupled with my three months’ hands-on experience of drinking coffee like an Italian, I believe I’m well on my way to finding answers to my research questions and establishing new universals in interpreting.”

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