Chloe Hall

February 20, 2014

ENGL-1102-097
Dr. Sally Griffin
Description of Artifact

Cross Cultural Solution of Cape Town, South Africa was a beautiful
experience. The artifact I brought into class was a lesson plan for the isiXhosa and
Afrikaans languages. IsiXhosa and Afrikaans are the official languages of South
Africa.

Xhosa-speaking peoples have inhabited coastal regions of southeastern
Africa since before the sixteenth century. The members of the ethnic group that
speaks Xhosa refer to themselves as amaXhosa and call their language isiXhosa,
while the language is most commonly known as "Xhosa" in English. Afrikaans was
considered a Dutch dialect in South Africa until the early 20th century, when it
became recognized as a distinct language under South African law, alongside
Standard Dutch, which it eventually replaced as an official language

It was very important for my fellow volunteers and me to learn the basics of
isiXhosa and Afrikaans. By learning the basics of these languages, we were able to
communicate better with the locals and children we worked with. They also gained
more respect for us for putting in the effort to learn the languages. It definitely was
rewarding seeing the South African women faces light up when I said, Molo sisi.
Unjani? (Hello miss. How are you?) every time I came in for work.