Afrikaans Hartlik Welkom!

As I mentioned before, Stellenbosch is a predominantly Afrikaans University. Although you do not need Afrikaans for most of the postgraduate courses, an Afrikaans course is a must! First this demonstrates that you are interested in the culture. Secondly it enables you to talk to locals and form friendships.  

The International Programmes Stellenbosch (IPSU) offer Afrikaans language courses for international students:

• Intensive course for beginners (January and July)
• Basic Afrikaans for beginners I
• Basic Afrikaans for beginners II
• Afrikaans for Dutch and Flemish speaking students

intensive course "Pretproe"

I arrived three weeks before the semester started in order to attend the intensive course for beginners. There are only a few participants accepted (I think 12) and if you are interested in this course you should apply as early as possible. Marthie Smit (see staff - special programmmes) from the international office is the person responsible for the language courses. In 2004 the fee was R675 (€85).

This language course was the best I've ever had in my life!
The class was held in a special room called "skatkamer" and you sit on comfortable sofas. We had class 6 hours per day over a period of 15 days but time flies when you're having fun. It is not “only” a language course, you also take various "uitstappies" (fieldtrips) to learn about Afrikaans history and Stellenbosch. The goal of the course is to enable you to speak social Afrikaans and understand the main point of conversations or the menu :) The lecturer (Amanda de Villiers) of this course does not use the boring teaching methods you are familiar with from your language courses at school. In this course, you dance, sing, act, play games, have to be creative, and have a lot of fun (and Marius is a Moffie!) ! After only 1 week you are already able to write your own soap-opera! Imagine, if I had such a teacher or teaching methods at my English courses at school I would be able to write and speak proper English ;)

Conclusion: It is essential to attend this course!!!

basic Afrikaans for beginners

These courses are semester courses for 5 hours per week. The curriculum is quite similiar to the intensive course, although I think you will have a better outcome by attending an intensive course where you have to speak Afrikaans the whole day. In 2004 the fee was R 1958 (€130). More information at the IPSU site. Since the course is also offered by IPSU you have to apply during the orientation week.

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