Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Hallo! My name is Allan, and I'll be your language teacher and cultural guide throughout this introductory course.
INTRODUCTION
Wherever your destination may be, manners are a must! In this respect, Afrikaans is no different from other languages. So for our first lesson, we'll be teaching you simple phrases that are bound to come in handy throughout your trip to South Africa. I can't stress this enough; a little bit of the language can take you a long way!
Oh, before we start! Let me quickly explain something that might confuse you. Afrikaans is one of the 11 official languages in South Africa. The other languages are English, Zulu, Xhosa, Swati, Southern Sotho, Venda, Ndebele, Tsonga, Tswana, and Northern Sotho. Afrikaans is the third most-spoken language after Xhosa and Zulu. In South Africa lots of people understand English, but as Nelson Mandela once said “Speak to somebody in their language, and you speak to their heart.” Afrikaans will let you speak to the heart of people living in South Africa.

Lesson focus

In Afrikaans, “Thank you” is dankie. Let's break it down by syllable.
(slow) dankie
Now let's hear it one more time.
dankie
Another useful phrase is Baie dankie vir alles, meaning “thank you very much for everything.”
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Baie dankie vir alles.
Once more:
Baie dankie vir alles.
The word baie means "very, "many” or “much.”
(slow) baie
baie
Then we have the word dankie, meaning “thanks.”
(slow) dankie
dankie
Let’s hear the first two again, which together mean “Thank you very much.”
(slow) Baie dankie
Baie dankie
Next we have the component vir, meaning “for.” Let’s hear it again:
(slow) vir.
vir
Next we have alles meaning “everything.”
(slow) alles.
alles
So the whole phrase for “Thank you for everything” is Baie dankie vir alles. Now let's hear it once again.
(slow) Baie dankie vir alles
Baie dankie vir alles.
If you want to be really polite you could say Baie dankie meneer. It means “Thank you, sir.” Say “Thank you” or baie dankie then add the word meneer which means “sir” or “mister.” With a female speaker, you can say Baie dankie mevrou which means “Thank you, madam.”
Again, Meneer means “sir” or “mister,” and mevrou means “madam.”
You would use this to show your respect for older people, or people that you don’t know. Let’s listen one more time. First, “Thank you, sir.”
(slow) Baie dankie meneer.
Baie dankie meneer..
Next, “Thank you, madam.”
(slow) Baie dankie mevrou.
Baie dankie mevrou.

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