LANGUAGE SKILLS

Short summary:

I can read, write and conduct a conversation in Afrikaans, English and German.

Where does this come from?

As one can derive from my personal details, I was born in Germany and halfway grew up there until my parents decided to emigrate to South Africa in 1972. Up to then, my language base was German only.

Afrikaans became the next language I mastered when my parents decided to relocate from Hillbrow, Johannesburg, to Malelane, just south of the Kruger National Park. Deprived from the luxury of attending a German school, I tried to fit into the Afrikaans medium of the local primary school. Thanks to the local missionary and his family, I was able to conduct a conversation in Afrikaans by January 1973, in time for the new school year.

The English language came along, initially as the compulsory “second” language at school but later honed to better fluency after leaving the hometown in search of employment in the city.