Friday, March 25, 2005, 05:27 GMT
<<<Do all South Africans (black or white) speak or at least understand Afrikaans? >>>
Having lived in KwaZulu-Natal, SA for 6 months, I saw that while nearly all South Africans were at least familiar with Afrikaans, certainly not all of them spoke it. Particularly since the end of apartheid, the language has seemed to spread less than English. Afrikaans never gained teh same popularity as English (apparently one colonial domination language works better than others), but the riots in Soweto in 1976 revolved particularly around teh forcing of an Afrikaans-only curicuulum in schools. I met quite a few black South Africans and a number of whites that did not speak or readily comprehend Afrikaans.
Having lived in KwaZulu-Natal, SA for 6 months, I saw that while nearly all South Africans were at least familiar with Afrikaans, certainly not all of them spoke it. Particularly since the end of apartheid, the language has seemed to spread less than English. Afrikaans never gained teh same popularity as English (apparently one colonial domination language works better than others), but the riots in Soweto in 1976 revolved particularly around teh forcing of an Afrikaans-only curicuulum in schools. I met quite a few black South Africans and a number of whites that did not speak or readily comprehend Afrikaans.