What Is The Best Way To Learn Afrikaans?

What Is The Best Way To Learn Afrikaans?

Finding the easiest, most effective way of learning a new language can be tricky – what works for one person might not work as well for another.

But generally-speaking, the best way to learn Afrikaans and any other language is to immerse yourself in it as much as possible. This is, after all, how you learned your mother tongue.

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Immersion can look like different things to different people – it might mean spending time in an Afrikaans-speaking country, or it could simply mean making a concerted effort to speak the language every day, even if it’s just with yourself.

In this article, we’ll look at all the ways you can immerse yourself in Afrikaans, as well as some other tips and tricks to make learning the language easier.

The Top 5 Ways to Learn Afrikaans

Take a trip to South Africa

The best way to learn Afrikaans is to go to South Africa and live there for a while. You’ll pick it up soon enough, especially if you’re hanging out with locals and watching TV.

If you can’t up and move to South Africa, try to travel there for a vacation. You can immerse yourself in the language while also enjoying all that the country has to offer – its stunning natural beauty, vibrant culture and friendly people.

Befriend a native speaker

If you don’t have the opportunity to travel to South Africa, try to find a native speaker of Afrikaans to be your friend. This way, you can practice the language in a natural setting, and they can help you with pronunciation and grammar.

You can also look for Afrikaans-speaking clubs or groups in your city – this is a great way to meet people and learn the language.

Use the free Tandem app to find Afrikaans speakers to communicate with via video, audio or text.

Watch Afrikaans TV and movies

Watching afrikaans entertainment to learn afrikaans

One of the best ways to learn a new language is to watch TV shows and movies in that language. This way, you can hear how the language sounds and get a feel for its rhythm and flow.

There are plenty of Afrikaans TV shows and movies available online. We’ve even put together a list of Afrikaans-language movies on Netflix and Amazon that you might find useful.

If you’re having trouble accessing any region-locked content, you can use a VPN to change your virtual location and unblock it. We recommend NordVPN, which is one of the fastest, most widespread VPNs, with servers in 60 countries, South Africa among them.

Have regular “Afrikaans days”

One way to make sure you’re immersed in the language is to have regular “Afrikaans days” where you do everything in Afrikaans. This might be difficult if you’re just starting out, but it’s a great way to force yourself to think in the language and to really get used to using it.

Start by setting aside one day a week to speak, watch, read and write nothing but Afrikaans. If that’s too much, start with one day a fortnight. The important thing is to be consistent and to make an effort to use the language as much as possible on these days.

Speaking could involve either talking to one of your new Afrikaans-speaking buddies or talking to yourself. For reading, try grabbing a couple of easy Afrikaans books for beginners; for writing practice, visit an Afrikaans-language forum like Reddit, or complete daily writing prompts in Afrikaans.

Use a fun app

Use an app to learn afrikaans

Learning a new language doesn’t have to be all work and no play. There are plenty of fun apps out there that can help you learn Afrikaans while also having some fun.

One of our favorite apps is “Ling”. It’s a great way to learn vocabulary, practice making your own sentences, and perfect your pronunciation in a way that doesn’t feel too much like work.

Using this daily, for half an hour or more, will definitely help you learn Afrikaans easily and stress-free.

There are a few other apps that you might also like. Check out our list of the top apps for learning Afrikaans, and read our experiences with each of them.

Conclusion

Learning Afrikaans can be easy and fun if you follow the tips in this article. Just remember that the key to fluency is immersion and picking up the language in an organic way, as you did when you were learning your native language.

Though children have a much easier time of picking up languages, being an adult learner also has its advantages. You have the ability to reason and to understand grammar rules, which can help you learn Afrikaans more quickly.

So get started today by following the tips in this article, and before you know it, you’ll be speaking Afrikaans fluently!