Native Afrikaans speaker offering Afrikaans lessons and tutoring. Both online and in-person sessions

Find out more about Jana

• Do you speak this language fluently because of your origins or because a teacher inspired you to learn it?

  I am an Afrikaner and therefore a native Afrikaans speaker.

• Can you name a living, historical or fictional character that you think is the emblematic representative of the language's culture?

  Simply put: No. Afrikaans is a language with such a rich history that it cannot be narrowed down to a specific group. This being said, there are some writers whose work have contributed a lot to the language.
  
  Among these are the writers affectionately referred to as the grandfathers of Afrikaans. They include:
  - C.J. Langenhoven, who even has a book dedicated to him containing all his proverbs that have been absorbed into the Afrikaans language
  - A.G. Visser, who played a major role in the "Tweede Taalbeweging"
  - C. Louis Leipoldt, who was sometimes referred to as "Oom Leipoldt" (Uncle Leipoldt) by older generations.
  
  There are also more contemporary influences like:
  - D Kramer, a songwriter, playwright and director
  - K du Plessis, a brilliant poet and singer
  - K Kombuis, another poet and lyricist whose work is ingrained into the fabric of Afrikaner culture
  - J Kerkorrel, a slightly more controversial poet and singer who did a great job at holding up a mirror to the flaws of society - a satirist in the truest sense of the word

• Is there a typical word, phrase, tradition or behaviour in the language that you particularly like?

  In the Afrikaans culture, a big emphasis is placed on respecting your elders. So older men are addressed as "oom" (uncle) and older women are addressed as "tannie" (aunt). In addition to this, Afrikaans is full of funny albeit accurate proverbs.

• Why does speaking this language matter to you?

  I have a big passion for my native language and it is a language that has an immense depth and richness to it that I want to share with people. Although not a lot of people speak it globally, it is a language worth learning - even if only for the purpose of knowing the quirky observations of society in the Afrikaans language.

• What is the main difficulty in learning this language and what can help students with the learning process?

  The biggest struggle to non-native speakers when it comes to Afrikaans is how simple the language is. And no, this is not an attempt to play down the difficulty of Afrikaans. Unlike in many languages, Afrikaans just has 3 tenses: past, present, and future. And the same prefix used to indicate past tense in one context is used to indicate future tense in another. We also have a lot of homophones and homonyms. The best tip for learning Afrikaans is to learn the language within a context. Merely learning rules do not help; it is a language where a big vocabulary will get you much further than just memorising rules.

• Share an anecdote related to your language learning or your schooldays.

  I have always been fascinated with where words come from and I think at some point my parents' knowledge couldn't keep up with my questions. So, when I was 10, my mom came home with an Afrikaans etymology dictionary for me to refer to if I wondered where a word came from.
  
  I still have that etymology dictionary, it is on my bookshelf right next to my extremely thick normal Afrikaans dictionary.

• How has travel or a specific experience helped you to increase your understanding and appreciation of the language?

  Growing up, my parents were very strict about not mixing languages (so when I spoke Afrikaans it had to be pure Afrikaans and when I spoke English it had to be pure English). This is obviously a difficult thing to master for a child and I sometimes I got annoyed with the constant correction of my English slang in my Afrikaans sentences. My dad then decided that we can have a competition: we both start off with 50 points and for each English word you say, a point gets deducted. The one who loses had to buy the other a hamburger. I eventually complained that it is not fair, since my dad never mixes his language... until my mom pointed out that I just had to listen when he talks about his job... and I did. And my 9-year-old-self got a cheeseburger the next weekend.

• What makes you a Superprof?

  I believe that a person who learns a language without learning culture risks becoming a fluent fool. This is why I always teach my students a bit of the culture as well and especially discuss how words are used in a colloquial context so that students don't unknowingly use a word or phrase without knowing its connotative meaning.
  
  I speak 3 languages fluently and I am currently learning a fourth. Because of this, I know the common challenges that students have when learning a new language and I make sure to mitigate these challenges for my students.