Anyone have a good source for a teaching tape or cd to practice speaking Afrikaans? I am having to put a lot of road time in on my job lately and might as well put the time to some use. You must hear the correct pronunciation of a language to be able to speak it well. I have lots of good sources of written teaching material. I am looking for something to practice my speach with.

Wonder why you are interested in Afrikaans...


Sunshine

swahili and/or shona...

jeffe

Mike Smith

There are language courses in well stocked bookstores. Afrikaans is old Dutch dialect, some claim it's plat-Deutsch

Many words are simular to Swedish

Good luck

/ JOHAN

I've been trying to learn a bit of Ndebele - had an Ndebele tutor for a short while but really have troubles with the clicks!

Anyone know of learning packages/tapes/software for Ndebele?

Gentlemen,

The "Teach Yourself Afrikaans" and "Colloquial Afrikaans" sets are both quite good. I believe the Colloquial series has CD's now. Both can be found on Amazon.com

I have a better teacher....an Afrikaans girlfriend..!!

I've also seen several language courses here in the bookstores in RSA for Zulu and Xhosa, but not sure about other black languages

Mike,

I have one I would like to sell, please email me...jim

Mike,

When I learned Vietnamese we called it a "long-haired dictionary".

jim

Jr, I have seen the colloquial series and it is pretty good for the basics.

Jim, I am interested in ths tapes you have on a conditional basis. I have heard the long haired dictionary term as well. I will email you offline time to DI DI MAO out of here.

The best reason to know some of the local language is to not let them know and see what they say when they think you can't understand them.

I surprised my PH in '94 on the third day of my safari when he was talking in Sindebele to a tracker about seeing a leopard on a certain bend in the road in the past. I asked him if his client got the leopard and how big it was.

You should have saw the wheels turning in his head trying to remember what else he had been saying for the previous three days.

John, There is some truth there for sure. Two years ago, I had been there for about a week. I never told anyone what I understood of the language. It is amazing what people will say when they think you are not listening or cant understand them. Anyway, after hearing a few things I wasnt meant to one night I went outside to check on things in the skinning shed. One of the phs young sons was there, about 3 or 4. I like kids so I started jabbering with him in my limited Afrikaans. One of the ph's came up behind me and heard me. Talk about a doe in the headlights look! He was like "what did you just say?" I said we were just talking about the kudu. He said thats what I thought.

A few minutes later you saw him talking to the other ph's and pointing in my general direction. I still laugh about it as it really caught them off guard. It wasnt meant to but it was educational none the less.