Every curriculum has to draw a line somewhere. Ours doesn’t include Afrikaans — but that isn’t the same as saying it doesn’t matter.
Afrikaans is the home language of around 10.6 percent of South Africans, making it one of the country’s most widely spoken languages. In parts of the Western and Northern Cape it isn’t a second language you occasionally encounter — it’s the default. Even basic conversational Afrikaans changes how you move through those places.
It’s also one of the friendlier languages for an English speaker to start with:
- Simple grammar. No conjugation by person. Ek is, jy is, hy is, ons is — one form, every time.
- Familiar words. Both languages are Germanic. Water is water. Hand is hand. Boek is book.
- What you see is what you say. Spelling matches pronunciation, so reading and speaking reinforce each other from day one.
Beginners tend to reach “I can hold a short conversation” faster in Afrikaans than in almost any other language.
Where to start
If you’d like to learn Afrikaans, we recommend Praatly — a South African-built app that teaches the language the way people actually speak it. Short daily lessons, real pronunciation, and everyday phrases you can use straight away instead of vocabulary lists you’ll forget. It’s free to try, and it works on any device, so a learner can do a lesson in ten minutes between subjects.
Start with greetings and a few common phrases, then say them out loud to someone who speaks the language. That first real exchange is usually what makes learners want to keep going.