Why African Languages

“Without language, one cannot talk to people and understand them; one cannot share their people and understand them; one cannot share their poetry, or savour their songs.” – Nelson Mandela.Learning another language helps you to communicate better with people around you.

Boost your linguistic universe

Research shows that language learning has communication and health benefits. Learning a new language trains your brain to make many connections.

When your travel, your experiences improve when you speak to people in their language.

Choose A Language – Sesotho, isiZulu or chiShona?

isiZulu and Sesotho are official languages of South Africa. Sesotho is also the official language of Lesotho. chiShona is the official language of Zimbabwe and has many speakers in South Africa.

All three languages are beautiful tonal languages with poetic descriptions of everyday things.

Cultural Understanding

Speaking a different language affords you greater insight to conversations, thoughts and feelings of people you converse with.

Speaking a different language gives you greater appreciation for music, arts and literature.

Rera Language School’s programmes also improve social skills and self-esteem and creating connectedness with others.

10 interesting facts about African languages:

Over 2000 languages are spoken by about 1 billion people across the African continent
6 language groups, namely Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger–Congo, Khoe, Austronesian and Indo-European which largely reflect the different regions of Africa
South Africa has the Guinness World record on the highest number of official languages
Earliest languages were spoken in Africa
Multilingualism is a norm in Africa
KiSwahili is the most spoken Niger-Congo language
isiZulu is the second most spoken Niger-Congo language
There are different scripts used to write African languages – Latin, Arabic, Ge’ez
Namibia is the only country to recognise Khoisan languages such as Nama and Damara which are endangered
Madagascar’s Malagasy is more related to Indonesian and other Asian languages than other African languages

“To have another language is to possess a second soul.” – Charlemagne

About UsRera Language School is the brainchild of Matsobane Sexwale. Matsobane’s passion for languages stems from her personal journey in losing and regaining fluency in Sesotho, formal and informal study of 9 languages including at varied stages of her life – Sesotho, chiShona, isiZulu, SiSwati, English, Norwegian, Spanish, Dutch and German. Matsobane’s interest in languages and African languages in particular, has increased further by watching her own children navigate their language journey in English, chiShona and Sesotho. Following many years in corporate and running a management consulting practice, Matsobane changed her career focus to run her language school on a full-time basis to grow expand its client base, product and services. She is also the Sesotho teacher for Wits Language School.

She holds degrees in Psychology and a certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). She is currently also a student at Rera Language School to improve her proficiency in chiShona.

FAQs

How does immersion work when students do not understand the target language?

We utilise different communicative approaches that include flashcards.

My child / I speak already speak the languages you teach. How will the programme help me or my child?

Students who speak the target language learn to read and write at advanced levels. We work with each student to improve grammar, vocabulary, writing and conversational skills.

How long will it take you to be fluent in a new language?

Mastering a language is different for each person. It depends on a variety of factors including the amount of time students dedicate to practice. According to the US Foreign Service Institute of the State Department, it takes an English speaker 3 times longer to become proficient in African languages such as those Rera Language School teaches as it does to learn a language closer to English. The approaches at Rera Language School aims to give students a leg up in language learning.

How much time outside the classroom do you need to practice your new language skills?

Outside lesson times, look for people who speak the target language you are learning whom you can talk to. Also, we encourage you to do the following:

Practice words and phrases from your lessons
Listen to language stations in your target language
Label your home and office with words and phrases
Watch programmes on television and online