Learn Xhosa, one tweet at a time

Building a fluent nation, one tweet at a time

In 2009 Xhosa Fundis became the first Xhosa language school in the country, and the world, to successfully adopt the innovative teaching method of daily tweets.

The school sends a Xhosa phrase, linking to a Posterous site where followers can listen to the phrase being spoken by a Xhosa speaker. The page then gives a breakdown of the word parts as well as any other grammatical or cultural information related to the phrase. The same is available through Facebook and via sms.

A Xhosa language school in Cape Town has ventured onto the social networking scene, for a different reason than most, namely to teach language. As from August 2009, Xhosa Fundis, based in Woodstock, became the first Xhosa language school in the country, and the world, to successfully adopt the innovative teaching method of daily tweets.

"Learning any language as an adult is a challenging experience and with this in mind we keep our courses innovative, interactive and fun, focusing on the most useful social and practical Xhosa skills," says founder and teacher Kyle Hudson. "We are especially aware that working adults need to be supported by easy-to-use learning tools that are close at hand during a busy day. We were already successfully using fridge magnets, pin-me-up notes, audio CDs, pocket phrase books and a Xhosa-learning diary. Twitter and Facebook were the obvious next steps."

Tweets referring to current affairs have proved to be popular, such as recent ones, Ubusika bufikile, meaning "Winter has arrived", Ndithanda isoka, meaning, "I love soccer", and Ingenile ibhola, meaning, "The ball has gone in". Other recent tweets have included phrases such as Ndiyakuthanda, meaning "I love you", Ndibhizi namhlanje, meaning "I'm busy today", and the very popular Walala wasala, meaning "You snooze, you lose".

Responses to the Xhosa tweets have been very enthusiastic with new followers signing up on a daily basis. One follower commented on how she is enjoying impressing colleagues at work with her daily Xhosa phrase; another tweeted whether the Season's Greeting, Merry Xmas, should be pronounced with the Xhosa x-click!

"Due to the nature of Twitter, our tweet lessons are not restricted to subscribed learners but available to anyone interested in acquiring a few phrases", Kyle continues. "This fits perfectly with our aim to play a significant role in building a fluent nation and breaking down language barriers."

"On the courses we run, learners regularly relate experiences of how they used their new Xhosa skills and what the varying responses were. These often range from being very humorous to very moving. For example, one learner was treated like a celebrity at a garage with 4 attendants all rushing to her car, and then a doctor told us how her Xhosa patients were laughing with her now when before they had not spoken a word," says Kyle.

"Learning a local language other than your mother-tongue often has a very positive and even healing impact. This is particularly true for many South Africans who grew up in isolated communities during the Apartheid years and never had the chance to learn Xhosa in any meaningful way. The positive impact of speaking a local African language extends naturally to a better sense of belonging and of community among South Africans at large."

"Classes are always co-presented by both English and Xhosa mother-tongue speakers. Having a mother-tongue Xhosa speaker is crucial for giving learners an authentic experience relating to Xhosa culture and pronounciation practice. Having a mother-tongue English speaker explaining Xhosa grammar is also a huge advantage, as they have direct knowledge of what beginners find difficult about it and therefore how to give them access to it. In this way we cover all the bases," Kyle concludes.

Xhosa Fundis has been training adult learners in basic conversational Xhosa since 2004. In this time it has taught over 1,500 individuals based in Cape Town, including a full range of local South Africans, visitors from abroad, and more recently also from other African countries, notably Zimbabwe. It provides courses and learning materials to individuals, companies and schools.

For a direct link to their Posterous site go to http://xhosafundis.posterous.com/

To follow Xhosa Fundis on Twitter, go to http://twitter.com/xhosafundis. More information at www.xhosafundis.co.za or email Kyle at az.oc.wen@olom or call 021 447 9868/084 843 7795.

Editor's note

Kyle Hudson studied Xhosa at high school and subsequently completed a BA in Xhosa and Drama at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. She qualified as a teacher in 1997 and completed a TEFL certificate. She has been working in the field of education and training for more than 14 years, locally and abroad. Her approach was most clearly developed in Japan, where she worked on designing new courses specifically aimed at practical speaking and listening skills, for adults learning English. Many of these techniques have been innovatively and effectively applied to teaching Xhosa. Kyle is the Founding Member of Xhosa Fundis and teaches on all the beginners courses.

Submitted by Mari Stimie
+27 (0)76 4800 64
moc.liamg@eimitsiram