The other night I found myself shaking my head as my co-worker, Tessa, and I ate dinner with our Afrikaans-speaking host family. The family is composed of a grandparent aged couple and their grandson (who spends a significant time both before and after school with his grandparents as his mother commutes to school). They insist on watching television as we eat the evening meal which is foreign to me to begin with, as my family would never be caught watching television while eating, to add to comedy of it all the program of choice is a beloved Soap Opera, in Afrikaans with English subtitles. Unlike our North American soaps, this one does not have the hazy hues that immediately make it evident that we are watching a Soap. But one thing that seems not to be lost in translation is a series of tangled events and tragic relational drama!
I tell this tale, in part to depict the day to day events in my life that all too quickly become familiar, but also as a preface to show off some of my new Afrikaans language skills.
So far I have learned to say:
Goeie More - Good Morning
Dankie – Thank you
Bai Dankie –Thank you very much
Koffee mit milk – Coffee with Milk
Tot siens – Goodbye (literally later –see you)
Assesblief - Please
And so by stringing these simple phrases together I am able to sound like a regular Afrikaaner in the morning … which amply ties me over until lunch.
GOEIE MORE! (Good morning!) KOFFEE MIT MILK, ASSESBLIEF (Coffee with milk, please). Upon receiving the coffee (with milk) I am then able to add a cheerful DANKIE (Thank you)/ BAI DANKIE (or thank you very much depending on how early the birds chased me out of bed). Then as I head out the door I add TOT SIENS (See you soon”).
Well that concludes our Afrikaans vocabulary for today, and my descriptions of my life at present, where likely all my efforts to speak the language are lost in translation.
This is a picture of Tessa and I at the airport in Winniped, enjoying our last moments of winter!
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