Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Afrikaans nursery rhyme in Elysium

This is a famous nursery rhyme that most Afrikaans people will know! Jan Pierewiet is a kind of bird found in South Africa with a very distinct call.

It was sung in Matt Damon’s movie “Elysium” by Sharlto Copley, a South African actor that also played in “District 9” and “A-team”.

There are many videos of this song on youtube, note that none-native speakers often pronounce "stil" the same way as "still" in English, which is not entirely accurate.
Can you hear the difference and pronounce it correctly?

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Monday, March 3, 2014

What is the wine of life?

As in many other languages, people often insert English words when speaking Afrikaans. See a few of them here and learn how to say "Friends are the wines of life."

http://goo.gl/tvxmvR

Saturday, March 1, 2014

What the...?

"Hoe de moer!?" means "what the hell?" in Afrikaans. I wouldn't encourage you to use it, but it's good to know what it means.
Men will often use this in moments of anger or despair.
http://goo.gl/Nk0KlH <-- listen to it here

Thursday, February 27, 2014

I confess.

Do you know how to say "office", "excited", "success", "confess", "graduation" (slang) and "every moment" in Afrikaans?

Learn them here: http://goo.gl/LVpkXn - Facebook update2


Do you think my "b" sounds like "p" ? 


Monday, February 24, 2014

Making new recordings

I'll be making recordings for all the Afrikaans facebook updates within the next month. Here is the first one   http://goo.gl/tMKzmb

  I'm doing this for two reasons, the first is to update my webpage and help people learn Afrikaans, the second is to practice my speech. After my wedding I have been stuttering a little more than before so I need to put in some effort. Some recordings I repeat up to 20 times until I am satisfied with the fluency. I know the the hard work will pay off in due time.