Pupils choose 'easier' Afrikaans

Nom Chompsky

Nom Chompsky

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Sunday Times

Not very surprising - Afrikaans is a relatively easy language to learn due to the simple grammar rules. Also the abudance of Afrikaans teachers also helps.

Even Zulu-speaking pupils at some of the country’s top private and former Model C schools are forsaking their mother tongue and taking Afrikaans as a second language, English being their “first-language” choice.

Out of the 558393 pupils writing matric this year, only 9788 will sit exams in indigenous African languages as a second language. The majority, 266408, have opted for Afrikaans. Of those taking an African second language, most — 7428 — have chosen Zulu.

When it comes to first languages, 130611 matrics are writing Zulu this year, and 80665 will sit English at the same level. A total of 78402 candidates will write Xhosa and 72725 Sepedi as a first language. A total of 54204 will write Afrikaans as a first language.

At Parktown High School for Girls in Johannesburg, 41 African pupils in Grade 11 have chosen Afrikaans instead of Zulu as their second language after English.

...

“Many people are moving their children’s education away from mother tongue to English. It’s a worrying trend, but is in keeping with the growth of the black middle class, who want their children to be educated in English.”

Penny Vinjevold, the Education Department’s deputy director-general for further education and training, said: “Obviously, nobody is going to take an indigenous African language as a second language without having done it at primary school.”

She said more needed to be done “to encourage learners and schools to offer another additional language rather than only Afrikaans”.
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I still think people should be allowed to do other world languages as a second language rather than one of the 11 official ones, bit of an isolationist policy as it stands now.
 
Syndyre said:
I still think people should be allowed to do other world languages as a second language rather than one of the 11 official ones, bit of an isolationist policy as it stands now.
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Yes you can, there are other languages you can write for 1st/2nd language and still recognised by SA University. Leaners can apply with British Council for their tests such as Chinese, Greek, Portugese.etc. I remembered such tests are drawn up by Cambridge......
 
True but then you have to do it as an additional language, AFAIK unless you've been out the country for more than 5 years you have to do English and another official language.
 
My son got a Certificate last term as he scored the highest mark in his standard for Afrikaans Second Language.

He will be going on to Grade 10 next year with the new curriculum and I am thinking instead of him taking English as a First Language he should rather take Afrikaans as a First Language and do English as a Second Language?
Our Family is English, but my children are in a predominantly Afrikaans School and are taught mostly in Afrikaans, depending on the subject.
My kids are quite used to speaking and being taught in Afrikaans at School, although we only speak English at home.
The only subject my son struggles in is Maths and I think perhaps he may on the one hand not have a good teacher or perhaps teaching Maths in Afrikaans is a mistake? He could also not have an aptitude for Maths although he gets A's, B's and C's in every other subject.

The choice will be his.
The Grade 9's(Std 7) have to chose their subjects for next year by the end of this month.

Just spoke to him now and he says that they have to take their Home Language, being English, as their First Language, so that settles that then.
 
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Ok, not 100% sure about the 5 years but heard of that before. Guy I know unknowingly missed the 5 years by about a week and so got stuck doing Afrikaans which he hadn't spoken for years instead of German which he was fluent in by then. :D
 
BTTB said:
Just spoke to him now and he says that they have to take their Home Language, being English, as their First Language, so that settles that then.
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I don't think it is the case that you HAVE to. But i would strongly suggest your son take English as a first language, especially if he intends carrying on with further studies.
 
What I can remeber about that 5 years rule was something like from the date you are bonafide SA student till when you finish Matric, if it's more than 5 years, sorry you need to take one of the offcial languages as your other examinable language instead of your home language. But I do konw some exceptions which students in specific schools can still takeup other language even they don't comply with 5 years rule.
 
Turbo_Aspiration said:
I don't think it is the case that you HAVE to. But i would strongly suggest your son take English as a first language, especially if he intends carrying on with further studies.
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Agreed. :)
His knowledge of Afrikaans will be fine at the level he is at, whereas English First Language will probably be a prerequisite for other studies in the future.
I am not even sure they offer Xhosa at his School?

Thanks for the advice. He will be doing English as a First Language and Afrikaans as a Second Language next year.


I must admit coming back on topic that Afrikaans is indeed a more easy subject.
Personally I do not speak much Afrikaans, unless the person really struggles to understand English, then I switch over, but I must probably sound like a Rooi-Nek. :p
My point here is that despite a couple of decades having past since I did Matric, I can still write Afrikaans just from my memories of the subject.
Ja ne ek se. :D
 
BTTB said:
I must admit coming back on topic that Afrikaans is indeed a more easy subject.
Personally I do not speak much Afrikaans, unless the person really struggles to understand English, then I switch over, but I must probably sound like a Rooi-Nek. :p
My point here is that despite a couple of decades having past since I did Matric, I can still write Afrikaans just from my memories of the subject.
Ja ne ek se. :D
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Don't speak much Afrikaans either, and that's probably better for everyone involved. :P Actually find Afrikaans most useful when I'm overseas and don't want other people to understand what I'm saying. :) If his Afrikaans is good he could also do English and Afrikaans both as first languages but its obviously more difficult, although it does benefit your overall matric marks, assuming you wouldn't have done much better in 2nd language.
 
Syndyre said:
Don't speak much Afrikaans either, and that's probably better for everyone involved. :P Actually find Afrikaans most useful when I'm overseas and don't want other people to understand what I'm saying. :) If his Afrikaans is good he could also do English and Afrikaans both as first languages but its obviously more difficult, although it does benefit your overall matric marks, assuming you wouldn't have done much better in 2nd language.
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Ahh. Clever.
But with the new curriculum would that still work out?
He is doing the new curriculum next year. Grade 10 (Std 8).
I recall before that subjects in Standard Grade were marked out of 300 and Higher Grade Subjects were 400 Marks. Having all subjects on Higher Grade allowed you to achieve over 100% if you did well in all subjects.

A University Exemption under the New Curriculum is a having a mark over 50% or so for your subjects other than the 4 compulsory subjects?
I must get used to the new system. I attended a meeting at The School which spoke of all these things 2 months back and I think the system where one could get over 100% in Matric is a thing of the past?
My son will do Matric in the Year 2009.
 
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BTTB said:
Ahh. Clever.
But with the new curriculum would that still work out?
He is doing the new curriculum next year. Grade 10 (Std 8).
I recall before that subjects in Standard Grade were marked out of 300 and Higher Grade Subjects were 400 Marks. Having all subjects on Higher Grade allowed you to achieve over 100% if you did well in all subjects.

A University Exemption under the New Curriculum is a having a mark over 50% or so for your subjects other than the 4 compulsory subjects?
I must get used to the new system. I attended a meeting at The School which spoke of all these things 2 months back and I think the system where one could get over 100% in Matric is a thing of the past?
My son will do Matric in the Year 2009.
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To be honest I know nothing about the new curriculum so you'd have to confirm any changes with that, but under the old system as you said SG subjects are marked out of 300 and HG out of 400, and either way your total marks are divided by something like 2100, regardless of how many HG and SG subjects you do, not sure of that figure btw, just using it for example. So 2nd language Afrikaans, even though its HG is marked out of 300, whereas 1st language is marked out of 400, so in pure marks terms for your aggregate 75% on 1st language i.e. 300 would be equivalent to 100% on 2nd language.
I have heard that with the new curriculum there is no HG and SG anymore, just one level somewhere in the middle but don't know much about it.
 
I matriculated in 2003. I did Afrikaans from Class 1 through to STD 10 (Grade 12). I still don't understand Afrikaans, can't speak it, don't speak it, don't want to speak it. They made us choose between Zulu and Afrikaans. Didn't want to learn Zulu either, but chose Afrikaans 'cause it's apparently easier.

I would rather learn something useful like Spanish, French or Japanese, something of use outer-country. They really need to change the curriculum.
 
Shame on you lord_spaceman :o) I came to SA just couple of years ago and ek kan 'n bietjie praat, dis baie maaklik!
 
lord_spaceman said:
I matriculated in 2003. I did Afrikaans from Class 1 through to STD 10 (Grade 12). I still don't understand Afrikaans, can't speak it, don't speak it, don't want to speak it. They made us choose between Zulu and Afrikaans. Didn't want to learn Zulu either, but chose Afrikaans 'cause it's apparently easier.

I would rather learn something useful like Spanish, French or Japanese, something of use outer-country. They really need to change the curriculum.
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Agree absolutely.
 
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