Learn Afrikaans
with Ling

According to the Foreign Service Insitute (FSI), Afrikaans is classified as a category I language, meaning that it will take the average learner only 600-750 hours to reach proficiency!

So, if you want to learn Afrikaans, you’ll need to take short but intensive courses on weekends or at least 3-4 times per week.

Even if Afrikaans might be easier to learn than other foreign languages, that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to master the language overnight. You’ll still need to practice daily to become familiar with the vocabulary and speak to locals.

Here are some tips to help you learn Afrikaans faster:

• Grammar: Similar to English, there is no distinction between the infinitive and present forms of verbs, except “to have” and “to be.” You also won’t find gender rules or irregular verbs in Afrikaans.
• Vocabulary: Afrikaans has a rich vocabulary mixed with Malay, Portuguese, Bantu languages, and Khoisan languages. In fact, 95% of all Afrikaans vocabulary has Dutch origin!
• Speaking/Listening: If you already speak Dutch or German, you should be able to pick up on the similarities in the pronunciations. Even though Afrikaans is spoken exactly the way it’s written, the language also includes ten monophthongs and seven diphthongs.
• Reading/Writing: The word order in Afrikaans usually follows Subject-Verb-Object.

Learning Afrikaans can help open your eyes to new people and cultures, as well as exercise your brain and improve your overall memory.

Here are some other reasons why Afrikaans is useful to learn:

Encourages you to appreciate Afrikaans people and their culture

South Africa is a big country that shares much of its culture with neighboring countries. If you learn Afrikaans, there will be no shortage of knowledge to learn and things to discover.

If you’re an avid reader, Afrikaans literature is a great place to start. Reading Afrikaans literature will help you gain a better understanding of how people think and look at the world.

Open you up to learning other languages

Since Afrikaans is closely related to Germanic languages, like Portuguese, Dutch, English, and German, learning Afrikaans will encourage you to learn even more languages.

If you’re up for the challenge, the Ling app is a great learning resource if you want to learn multiple languages at the same time.

Help you understand Afrikaans humor and idioms

Did you know that people who speak Afrikaans love expressing themselves through funny phrases?

By learning Afrikaans, you’ll be able to understand the many idioms and quotes about South African culture and way of life. Most Afrikaan proverbs, idioms, and sayings involve animals, so that’ll help make them much easier to visualize and remember.

Great way to train your memory

Learning a new language will open you up to more opportunities, both career-wise and socially.

Science also tells us that learning languages is a great way to improve mental agility and memory. So, if you want a sharper mind, learn Afrikaans.

Generally speaking, Afrikaans isn’t that difficult to learn, especially if you’re a native English speaker or have previous experience with Germanic languages.

There are about 7 million native Afrikaans speakers globally. That’s approximately 14% of the total world population! Not to mention, more than 20 million people speak Afrikaans combined in Botswana, the UK, Zimbabwe, and New Zealand.

So is Afrikaans easy to learn? As you can see, Afrikaans is a widely spoken language, so there is no shortage of learning resources available to help you learn the language.

In addition to using a great learning resource, here are some other learning tips you can try out to help make learning Afrikaans easier:

• Start with basic vocabulary and essential phrases
• Listen to podcasts in Afrikaans or Afrikaans audio courses to get familiar with the tonation
• Find an Afrikaans-speaking partner through online language courses or language teaching platforms
• Find free Afrikaans lessons online for extra support
• Use a language learning app, like Ling, to make learning fun and easy
• Don’t be afraid to make mistakes

Afrikaans and English are both classified as cateogory I languages, which means that they are of similar difficulty to learn.

Afrikaans is a descendant of European languages, such as Dutch, German, and French. Afrikaans and Dutch have a certain degree of mutual intelligibility, but Afrikaans has fewer inflections than most European languages and English. Afrikaans also doesn’t have verb conjugations, so memorizing the tenses is easier.

However, even if you are a native English speaker, you might find some of the Afrikaans morphology and diphthongs hard to pronounce. But, that doesn’t mean the language is impossible to learn!

Overall, if you’re looking to learn Afrikaans and English simultaneously, you’ll need an app to help you practice. With Ling, you can learn how to speak Afrikaans correctly with fun mini-games, interactive activities, and various other exercises!