getting started with an african language.

[Necuno]

getting started with an african language. i've got a couple of questions

1) for current location being south africa would zulu be the best to learn ?
2) is there any free decent online courses i can do ?
3) of not 2, then pay one, but not too expensive.

 

[Y'all Qaeda]

Where you based? Our university has courses in Sotho..

 

[Necuno]

Where you based? Our university has courses in Sotho..

pta / east.

 

[MickeyD]

FS/Gauteng - go for Sotho
KZN - Zulu
WC/EC - Xhosa

 

[tsume]

For GP I'd say Zulu as a main...but since you live in Pretoria I think they are more Venda people in Pretoria (but I wouldn't recommend Venda cause as soon as you leave Pretoria Venda wont fly). What do friends/co-workers around you speak, this can help you make a decision since you can ask for help in pronunciation from them

 

[zulgin]

Pretoria = Sepedi/Tswana/Ndebele/ they are all mutually intelligible and many speakers mix them with Afrikaans and English as the language isn't really developed. As for Venda, good luck with that one, its not related to the Nguni language as the rest of our countries languages are.

 

[Y'all Qaeda]

pta / east.

I'm in Vaal. Sorry, can't help you. Except, try getting your hands on Sesotho made easy by Aubrey D Mokoena, we used it in our sotho course and it's a rather nice book to have.

 

[Guest 20221009]

Pretoria = Sepedi/Tswana/Ndebele/ they are all mutually intelligible and many speakers mix them with Afrikaans and English as the language isn't really developed. As for Venda, good luck with that one, its not related to the Nguni language as the rest of our countries languages are.

True, Tshivenda is a bit different from the rest and some what difficult and Venda speakers are moslty found around Louis Trichardt. It was my Matric first language and I do not have a clue how I managed a C+. I picked up most of the languages from TV and then enhanced my undestanding by listening to people speaking and reading books written in those languages. Wits university has a very good language school for those that seek such a service.

I currently understand all the 11 official, can speak all the 11 and 1 international .

 

[sonxEr77]

Zulu, with that you should manage in most areas of South Africa

 

[seventhson]

All we did at school was learn zulu songs

 

[Hemps]

I would of thought isiXhosa would be high on the list?

 

[Park@82]

2) is there any free decent online courses i can do ?

I think davemc posted this the other day: http://www.byki.com/fls/free-zulu-software-download.html?l=zulu
not sure how good it is.

 

[zulgin]

True, Tshivenda is a bit different from the rest and some what difficult and Venda speakers are moslty found around Louis Trichardt. It was my Matric first language and I do not have a clue how I managed a C+. I picked up most of the languages from TV and then enhanced my undestanding by listening to people speaking and reading books written in those languages. Wits university has a very good language school for those that seek such a service.

I currently understand all the 11 official, can speak all the 11 and 1 international .

Well some may argue that some of the other languages also have a bit of an international coverage, every language that you can speak is a bonus, and besides how boring is it to go through life without being even bilingual at best

 

[Sideshow Bob]

started on Zulu couple of weeks ago.
1) Back then, I had asked some of my colleagues about best language to learn (for Gauteng esp.) and I got even split about Xhosa, Zulu and Tswana.
2) There are some introductory ones (you will get it via search as well) - http://www.unisa.ac.za/free_online_course/Zulu/Zulu.html
3) Wits course is 3500 Rands for 60 lessons if I remember correctly; not in my budget so I bought home study kit from here http://www.languages-and-translations.co.za/homeStudy.html - it seems quite decent beginner's kit. I got some elementary grammar books from public library and grammar seems quite daunting.