Afrikaans, Dutch, or neither?
Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2021 3:00 pm
For the past couple of weeks I've been studying Xhosa, a language mainly spoken in South Africa. This language is fairly difficult, especially the pronunciation, and it is quite different from English. Afrikaans is another language that is quite important in South Africa and some surrounding countries, and since it is closely related to English I would make much quicker progress (especially considering that I already speak German at a decent level). I have a few options and I was wondering if you could weigh in and help me decide.
Pros of learning Afrikaans:
Pros of learning Dutch:
Pros/cons of learning neither:
Pros of learning Afrikaans:
- I am much more interested in South Africa than in the Netherlands or Belgium.
- The grammar is much easier (no gender, no conjugation for person).
- It would help me to access more materials about South Africa and its languages (this would probably also happen if I learned Dutch, although obviously it would be a bit harder to understand Afrikaans if I don't study it directly).
- Because of the scant resources, I would be less tempted to spend hours a day on Afrikaans than Dutch, so it may take less time away from Xhosa.
Pros of learning Dutch:
- There are much better resources available.
- I like the sound better (purer vowels, sounds a bit closer to German).
- If I end up learning both languages, it would probably easier for me to think in Dutch and adapt the grammar to Afrikaans without thinking. If I'm used to Afrikaans and I want to try to fake my way through Dutch, I would have to guess about things like conjugation or gender.
- My wife and I speak French and are likely to make many visits to France, so it is reasonable to expect that we might wander into Belgium or the Netherlands on a trip. I would also love to visit South Africa but visits will be much less likely and less frequent.
- I am interested in Indonesia, and there may be some very interesting Dutch texts about Indonesia.
Pros/cons of learning neither:
- Xhosa is a difficult language. Studying a second language on top of it would take time and focus away from it and make success less likely.