Adventure Time! Sight seeing, shanties, race, language and clicking

Today marks a week since we left home in the US for South Africa. The social workers at Sparrow decided to drive us around to show us how South Africans live. So far, my impression of the country was that it appeared very modern, just like the US. Today I saw more, and this experience gave me a better understanding of how diverse South Africa really is.

Sometimes we would drive by mansions that were tucked away neatly in the mountains by the highway, but then several miles down the road, we would come across housing areas that were poorly kept, and seemed very cramped and overpopulated. These houses had foundations made of zinc and wood, but had incongruent amenities such as running water, electricity, security cameras and water heaters attached to the roofs.

Mansions tucked away in the mountains

Mansions tucked away in the mountains

Mansions tucked away in the mountains

Shanties where underprivileged Blacks live

Shanties where underprivileged Whites live

South Africa is home to four general racial groups-Whites, Blacks, Coloreds (of mixed decent) and Asians (Chinese and Indians). Blacks constitute the majority and is the most linguistically diverse group because in South Africa, there are many Black tribes.

There are 11 official languages of South Africa. Africkaans is the language of the Whites of Dutch heritage and English is the language of the Whites of English descent.

Almost everyone (of any race and class) I met spoke English, but with an accent of course. Some English accents sounded very much like a British accent and some sounded like a West African English accent.

As for the Blacks I met, the majority of them spoke English, Zulu and Xhosa (pronounced with a click), to name a few. As for Whites, it is uncommon for them to speak any of the Black tribal languages. They spoke either English or Afrikaans. But as for the Coloreds, who are of mixed decent, it is common for them to speak Afrikaans and Zulu (in addition to English). 

When asked how many official languages are spoken in the US, I would shamefully admit, "Only one- English". 

On my first day of meeting the kids at Sparrow, one little girl pulled me aside to teach me a few words.

At the moment I only recall a few.

Siyabonga-thank you (Zulu)

Dankie-thank you (Afrikaans)

Salanikahle-goodbye (Zulu)

Many of the words from the tribal languages are pronounced with clicks, so my pronunciation of certain words became better over time. I have accepted that it would take years of practice for me to be able to pronounce some words because I'm not used to clicking when I speak.