The South African Language

South Africans have very peculiar ways of speaking. Not only do we have 11 official languages, we sometimes use three at the same time and easily switch between the languages we are able to speak. And as Marloes and Suzanne can testify, sometimes the words don’t relate at all to what you think it might be... (check the meaning of 'robot' in the topic on traffic!). We’ve even added interesting words to the English language! Some of the favourites:

  • Howzit = How are you?
  • Just now = I’ll see you just now – this could be 5 minutes or an hour later OR you can be told 'I’ll see you right now or now-now'
  • Lekker = nice
  • Koki (pen) = a felt tip pen
  • Naartjie = a tangerine, a citrus fruit (now also a kids clothing label)
  • Pavement = the sidewalk
  • Biltong, Trek, .... etc!
check out these links to learn more:

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

First Communication on 27 March 09

Dear companions,

Last thursday at the European K&S day in the Maliebaan, we worked together on our upcoming learning journey to South Africa in September 2009. It was good to have colleagues from Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany & South Africa there. It was an inspiring afternoon full of ideas and connections.

We will make a Learning Journey, called Shifting Perspectives. And it starts now! In the coming months we will work on several projects and themes, in groups. Below are the first groups that were formed last thursday, please feel free to join or start another group. By working on this projects the coming months, we ensure we will make our visit worthwile for ourselves and the partners we'll be visiting. We will have to make contact with possible SA partners, share ideas for working together and make preparations for the project days in September.

Parallel on working on the projects we will have our 'South Africa Induction' workstream; every month you will receive ideas, perspectives to get to know South Africa. This may be films, tips for books, photos or music, it can be anything. We hope this will help and empower everybody to connect to the beautiful en rich country we will be visiting, a complex place full of new perspectives.

There's also a group of people staying home. We'd like to explore ideas to share experiences, during the entire Learning Journey. If you are one of the colleagues staying home it is of course possible to join one of the groups and journey with in various ways.

Overview of the groups formed on Thursday (contact person is indicated):

Restorative Justice

Robert, Erik, Carsten, Maaike, Katrien, Martijn

Art &Beauty

Marloes, Joseph, Petra, Kemp (contact person)

SEE Trust (this is a location/community to work with many possible themes)

Paul K (contact person), Lieve, Luk, Suzanne, Marcus, Margriet, Esther,
Saskia, Eric, Mariel, Titia.

Other themes communicated and possible groups forming:

Working with Holocaust Centre in Johannesburg as location to work with
issues of diversity etc. (Mark, Arne?)
Professionalisation of Participatory Disciplines (Katrien, Andrea ?)

People staying home

Cora, Alysia, Ans, Monique, Barbara, Astrid, ...

Organisation teams

Induction, Marloes, Martijn, Amanda (supported by Andrea),
Project Days, Andrea, Martijn
Weekend, ?
Working days, Robert, Philippa



Please sent us all your questions about the Learning Journey (practical or other), we will make an Question and Answer overview for everybody.

Look forward to walk this road with you

Regards from

Andrea, Robert and Martijn
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Trust the driver...?

Trust the driver...?
If you’re going on a field trip or game drive, please be sure to have an intelligent driver with you... not one that keeps spinning the wheel while you’re already stuck.