Learn the top five things you need to know about Afrikaans-speaking society
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| Eric: Welcome back to AfrikaansPod101.com. This is All About, Lesson 8, The Top 5 Things You Need to Know About South African Society. I'm Eric! |
| Pieter: Hallo! My naam is Pieter. |
| Eric: In this lesson, we're going to tell you more about life in South Africa. |
| Pieter : Yes, and we are very qualified to do so! |
| Eric: Yes, we have our South African expert, Pieter, here, and our pseudo-South African expert, me! |
| Pieter: South Africa is such a diverse country, so trying to talk about South African society is a huge subject. |
| Eric: Yes, so it's difficult to know where to begin. Why don't we start with city life, Pieter? |
| Pieter: Sure. South African cities are usually very large and quite different to cities in Europe, Asia, or North America. |
| Eric: Each has its own culture, food, and personality! |
| Pieter: Let's start with my hometown of Cape Town, a city I love! It’s called the mother city and was the first ever city in South Africa, founded by Jan van Riebeeck from the Dutch East India Company in 1652. |
| Eric: Its name is derived from the city’s location on the Cape of Good Hope. |
| Pieter: It used to be the port where the ships would stop on their way to the East Indies. |
| Eric: Yeah, and having a port was the reason that the city grew so much. Is Cape Town the largest city in South Africa? |
| Pieter: I guess that depends how you count! There are about 3.4 million people living there, but some people say there are as many as 10 million people living in Johannesburg. |
| Eric: Haha, wow, you know your numbers! |
| Pieter: It’s my job to know! Cape Town is located in the province in the southwest corner of the country, called the “Western Cape.” |
| Eric: Yes, and the Western Cape is one of the 9 provinces of South Africa. |
| Pieter: Cape Town attracts a lot of tourists – 2.5 million annually. |
| Eric: I think it’s because there are so many tourist attractions. |
| Pieter: Yeah, like Table Mountain and Robben Island? |
| Eric: Right. But there are lots more, like the Bo-Kaap and the beaches... |
| Pieter: And the V&A waterfront, which of course has lots of shops and restaurants. |
| Eric: And Long Street and Greenpoint are where you can experience some of Cape Town’s nightlife. |
| Pieter: There’s a lot of culture there for you to experience! |
| Eric: Sure sounds like it. Let's move on to the next city! |
| Pieter: Okay, well, we can't leave out Johannesburg. |
| Eric: Johannesburg is South Africa’s and Africa’s economic hub. It is in Gauteng province, in the northeast of the country. |
| Pieter: And it’s also a very multicultural city. |
| Eric: Johannesburg is one of South Africa’s most mixed cities, with all 11 of South Africa’s official languages being spoken there. I heard Zulu is the most popular language there, right? |
| Pieter: Yes, but nearly everybody speaks fluent English, and lots of people speak other languages like Afrikaans, Xhosa, and Setswana too. |
| Eric: How about the name of the city – do you know where it comes from? |
| Pieter: Well, as you might have guessed, it’s named after a man named Johannes! |
| Eric: Who is Johannes? |
| Pieter: That’s a very good question! The official record of which Johannes it was named after has been lost, so I guess we’ll never know! |
| Eric: It might always be a mystery! |
| Pieter: So let’s move on to something else. |
| Eric: Okay, the second aspect of South African society we want to talk about is... |
| Pieter: family life. |
| Eric: You grew up in South Africa, right? So you’re must be an expert when it comes to South African families. |
| Pieter: Yeah, I guess so. |
| Eric: Tell me something about your family. I heard South African families tend to be quite big. |
| Pieter: Yeah that's right. Four kids is not many in a country where you could have as many as 10 or more in one family! |
| Eric: And it’s possible in South Africa for gay people to get married. |
| Pieter: Absolutely. South Africa enshrines gay rights in the constitution, and gay marriage has been legal since 2006, making it the first country in Africa to recognize same-sex marriage. |
| Eric: And now, let’s get into the third aspect of South African society-- work. What’s it like to work in South Africa? |
| Pieter: Well, we’re fast! We prefer to get down to business quickly and cut out the small talk. |
| Eric: It seems to me you don’t like small talk. |
| Pieter: Hey, you are being very South African there, by being direct. |
| Eric: Yeah I prefer people being direct but I often hear people say they think South Africans can be a bit blunt. |
| Pieter: Aaah, I don’t think it’s a bad thing. This is Africa, we don’t worry so much about little things like that! |
| Eric: Now let's move on to the fourth aspect of South African society. |
| Pieter: And that’s politics. |
| Eric: So what’s up with this capital city issue? Isn’t it Johannesburg? |
| Pieter: Ah, no. Johannesburg is the economic hub of the country, but actually we have three different capitals. |
| Eric: Three?? Isn’t one enough? |
| Pieter: Why have one when you can have three? Pretoria is our executive capital, Bloemfontein is the judicial capital, and Cape Town is the legislative capital. |
| Eric: I guess that way no one gets left out. |
| Pieter: Yeah, apart from Durban... |
| Eric: Well, they have the beach and the beautiful Indian Ocean to keep them busy. That’s something people of all ages can enjoy. |
| Pieter: That brings us to the fifth aspect of South African society-- generational trends. Braaiing, that’s barbeque, is the pastime that all generations have in common in South Africa. |
| Eric: Though you see differences in every generation. |
| Pieter: Of course, and not everything has to do with meat! Younger people who’ve grown up since the advent of democracy in the early 1990s mix a lot more with different ethnicities than their parents did. When my parents were growing up, you weren’t allowed to socialize with people of another race because of the Apartheid regime. |
| Eric: Wow, it’s hard to imagine that now. |
| Pieter: It sure is! |
| Eric: It seems like South Africa is really embracing its racial diversity these days. Especially at schools and universities, you see mixed groups of friends everywhere. |
| Pieter: That’s very true. This generation will really make this the rainbow nation! |
| Eric: Okay, that’s it for this lesson. |
| Pieter: Thanks for listening! |
| Eric: And we’ll see you next time. |
| Pieter: Totsiens! |
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