Afrikaans is 'International'

• Yes Afrikaans is a simpler form of Flemish/Dutch. A lot of people dismiss Afrikaans in South Africa as a ‘kitchen’ language as it is not of any importance in SA. Which is not true. The language is broadly used all over the country in cities, large corporate companies and smaller towns. Unfortunately it is also generalised with SA’s racist farming community, which is not true. A lot of farmers in SA are first of all not racists and secondly a lot are not Afrikaans speaking. Someone has to carry the blame for Apartheid of course, so why not the Afrikaans population.
  
  Because Afrikaans is so close to Flemish, I have found that learning German was much easier for me than for people from other countries. Also it helps me to be ale to communicate to people in Belgium, Netherlands, Indonesia, Suriname and some parts of France. Look at http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0855611.html . So yes there are benefits of learning Afrikaans. It is a language with feeling and many other unique characteristics. I love the language as I grew up with it. Now I even appreciate it more and am proud of being Afrikaans speaking.
  
  All the best
  Jacobus
  
  

  Germany 10 Apr 2008, 11:58 - Report

learn Afrikaans!