Say What?

South Africa has eleven official languages. We're by no means the winner in the multiple languages per country competition, but eleven is still a lot.

For the visitor, unless you speak Dutch, English will do. Many people in the more frequently visited tourist spots will converse in English. If you're not a native English speaker, don't worry - many South Africans aren't either.

Much language here owes its roots to something else - so its not uncommon to hear words or phrases of another language mixed up in casual conversation. In fact, many South Africans will flit from language to language without realising it. Added to that, our unique form of English (see previous sentences on language mixing).

Language also depends very much on where you are. Cape Town is pretty much covered by English and Afrikaans (various dialects). Durban is more English. In Johannesburg, business is predominantly done in English but a multitude of languages will be heard off-duty in the suburbs. Pretoria, being the Capital is a mixture of English and Afrikaans - but as its the traditional home of the Afrikaaner heartland, will be pretty non-English outside the centre. Our indigenous African languages are spoken all over the place but are mostly geographically separated as follows: Cape - Xhosa, Durban - Zulu, Gauteng - Sesotho. However, Zulu is fairly universal across the country.

The various provinces will emphasize languages differently. For example, in the Cape its not uncommon to see public notices in three languages - trying to reach the largest audience. The language issue can be contentious here, especially given the past and the various colonising countries.

We have many modern emigrants too, all of whom will converse in their own tongue: Chinese, Indian, Swedish, French, German, various Eastern European will all be heard, sometimes in the most unexpected of places.