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

Project Days:

This is a call for everyone to join a project of their choice. Even if you are not traveling to South Africa in September, you can join a group and collaborate.

At the moment the following projects are developing. Contact the person listed for more information:
Publish Post

  • Restorative Justice (see posting and links on this site) - contact Maaike to step in
  • Art & Beauty (see posting on the basic premise on this site) - contact Kemp to step in
  • SEEtrust (this is a location/community to work with many possible themes) - contact Paul Keursten to step in
  • The Holocaust Museum in SA - contact Arne to get info and step in
  • Participative Practices project - bringing together Participative practitioners to investigate a topic of Change and Transformation - contact Katrien for more information and to step in.

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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.