Tokai SA wrote:
...thanks to my Sgt Major in Youngsfield, Cape Town. 8)
I'm english and didn't do particularly well in afrikaans at school.
Then came the army.
Then the only language I heard was afrikaans.
I asked the Corporal one day:
"Is die weermag nie 50/50 engels en afrikaans nie?'
His answer: "Jy's reg. En hierdier jaar is dit afrikaans"
The one thing I've experienced about afrikaans people is their enormous politeness when you struggle with the language.
At the first sign of difficulty they will gracefully shift the conversation back to english.
In Youngsfield I was stationed in the Research department (yes - they had one!)
(snap Tokai)
There was a certain female Corporal Heins.
My military goal was to have a full conversation with her, in afrikaans, without her switching it back to english to protect me.
This switch, while designed as politeness, represented my failure in the light of my quest.
It was eventually, with only 2 months left of my 2 year service, that Corporal Heins allowed the conversation to reach its natural ending in afrikaans.
One of my prouder moments.
Perhaps she was just invoking a second layer of politeness.
There is something about afrikaans that is more earthy and descriptive than other languages allow.
I am yet to find appropriate translations for certain afrikaans words or expressions.
Things like "Waar die f@k sluip jy troep?" Or "Kry houding!"
Somehow the dictionary translations don't capture the same meaning.
I do also remember a certain Bombardier Raa who made an artform of inventing the most colourful and obscene expressions in afrikaans as a means of insulting and attacking you on the parade ground.
And of course these were delivered with his bellowing voice a few millimetres from your nose.
I was tempted to repeat the most colourful, but have held back.
And it wasn't even sexual in nature.
