#afrikaansmustfall

Why ? Firstly why am I as a POC  forced to learn a language that was used to oppress my people . It also has history with apartheid during 1948 . Yet  I’m told it’s part of our curriculum. I’m forced to sit through these classes every day and forced to read a language that I can barely understand yet  these Afrikaans teacher cannot even bother to learn how to pronounce my African , Asian name or surname correctly. We told as POC  to read this language in front of our peers even when we feel uncomfortable just so that they could have a laugh . This can have a huge impact on a leaners self confidence. 

Why should I spend so many hours studying a language that I will never use after high school , it doesn’t benefit me in any way but wastes time that could have been used studying something that I understand and can benefit my future education . Yes , some people might bring up the argument that you can attend a school that allows you to learn your Home language but the problem is that these schools don’t offer the same quality of education as model C schools . We are told that if you don’t want to do Afrikaans as your 2nd language you will have to get a private tutor which you will have to attend after school yet we are still required to participate in sport . This only disadvantages a POC because we pay normal school fees which are already expensive and on top of that we now have to pay extra fees because our model c schools don’t have any teachers employed at the school that teach other Indigenous  languages . When it comes to learners who want to learn Afrikaans they have the teacher there at the school already  no extra fees or private lessons needed . 

We are not asking for Afrikaans to be totally abolished but to treat the other indigenous languages with such care as Afrikaans. I think that Afrikaans as a second language can be replaced with another indigenous language. Afrikaans has lost its relevance in terms of linguistic oppression. We must remember that Afrikaans is the language of the oppressor and was used to the majority. It makes no sense that we as students must learn Afrikaans while these Afrikaans speakers would not take the time out of their day to learn Zulu or Xhosa etc . Some might say at a geographical standpoint the Western Capes most spoken language is Afrikaans however I think Afrikaans must give way to other indigenous languages and allow them to also rise to the level of Afrikaans .