Discover your language heritage at UJ this weekend

© Ivaylo Sarayski – 123RF.com

Organised by the Afrikaans Taal en Kultuur Vereniging (ATKV) and the UJ’s Department of Afrikaans and Department of Linguistics, it will celebrate the richness of South Africa’s multilingualism.

“We must use the richness of our languages to learn from and teach one another,” says Prof Ronel Johl, acting head of the Department of Afrikaans at UJ.

“The Department of Linguistics is fully committed to multilingualism in South Africa. It is our core business at all times! We embrace diversity and are thoroughly aware of the urgent need to cherish the languages and heritage of our land,” adds Dr Eleanor Cornelius, head of the Department of Linguistics.

“The role of interpreting in educational and other environments must not be underestimated or undervalued, because one study after another points to the enormous benefits of interpreting in multilingual contexts. The same holds for translation. We are as serious about Afrikaans and its preservation as we are about the preservation and development of the other nine indigenous languages in a multilingual dispensation.”

Programme

On Friday 20 May from 9-11am the Talethon, a multilingual quiz for Grade 9 learners will take place at the Kingsway Campus. The purpose of the language competition is to familiarise learners with more than one language (Afrikaans, Zulu and Sotho) and to help cultivate a love for our country’s languages.

On Saturday 21 May UJ’s Department of Afrikaans will host a workshop for Afrikaans teachers. This workshop seeks to equip educators with innovative and exhilarating classroom techniques to make the learning of Afrikaans even more fun. It will be held at the Kingsway Campus of UJ.

On Saturday 21 May members of the public and language lovers can see how Afrikaans classes are conducted in Soweto. The Afrikaans-in-Soweto Project is a joint project of the ATKV and the Department of Afrikaans of UJ, where children as well as adults learn Afrikaans in an informal fun-filled way. On this day in Soweto Afrikaans speakers also get the opportunity to learn a little Tswana.

“The activities that we line up for the Saturday in Soweto illustrate yet again the ATKV’s commitment to the promotion of Afrikaans in a multilingual context,” says Karien Brits, ATKV’s manager: language.

For more information, call Karien Brits on +27 (0)11 919 9136 or email az.gro.vkta@bneirak or Donovan Lawrence on az.ca.ju@ecnerwalcd.