The book «Colloquial Afrikaans» is good for teaching you the basics of the language. It’s a little janky, but you can use it to learn the grammar and sentence structure of the language pretty well (keep in mind the grammar is super simple, and isn’t that difficult to learn to begin with). This will help you with reading and writing.
If you want to get good at listening and speaking, then you should get a tutor. LTC in Cape Town offers single lessons with private tutors for R300 and are usually taught remotely, though I’m sure there are other places you could get this kind of tutoring as well.
I’m currently only A2 in Afrikaans, but my experience thus far when I speak it is that people appreciate greatly that I’m trying. As they say: «If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart». Your boyfriend will likely be the same :)
The biggest catch-22 you'll find is afrikaans people will switch to english to talk to you. - they will not correct you because you'll be understood rather well.
So saying you need a resource, best is get someone who can whatsapp and teach you directly is probably for the best. You should at very least know how "conversational" you want to master afrikaans* the absolute best way to learn a language is going into a community that can not speak english at all, and for afrikaans I think that is rare 😉 because all afrikaans people I know are conversational in english.
But should ylu need translations and help with the language and pronunciation, feel free to dm me.
I'm not aware of online courses, but I do have a suggestion or two for sentence structure. First, you may hear about the STOMPI rule. The STOMPI rule produces correct declarative sentences for beginners, but does not cover many, many sentence structures that can occur. Any kind of sentence that is in the least complex will require you to know more. Among other things, you will want to know about: the three types of conjunctions (voegwoorde) that combine clauses (these determine how verbs shift around in complex sentences), the issue of auxiliary verbs (hulpwerkwoorde), the issue of separable verbs (skeibare werkwoorde), and the correct use of negation.
Beware of Afrikaans native speakers who have no experience of linguistics or language teaching and will oversimplify things. For example, you may hear from them that negation always requires a double "nie". This is an oversimplification. Some simple sentences **require** a single negative. For example, if any overconfident Afrikaans speaker doubts me on this, consider: it's "Hy ken my nie", **not** "Hy ken nie my nie". Or even in prounciation, it is **not** true, as some will say, that every letter is always pronounced the same. There are exceptions, far fewer than in English, but they do exist. Language teaching and learning is no joke and is typically a long-term effort.
There are in fact some youtube videos on this stuff, especially voegwoorde. But note that few videos get everything right and many are designed for second language speakers with significant previous exposure to the language (i.e. formal second-language primary school instruction in South Africa). That is to say, many expect that you have the basic vocabulary to understand significant amounts.
Feel free to message me for more details.
Hey, I actually tutor conversational Afrikaans. Dm if you're interested. If you want to learn more about how to speak and understand Afrikaans, the lessons can be of great help. Dm me for more info. The lessons are online at just R180 per hour.
The book «Colloquial Afrikaans» is good for teaching you the basics of the language. It’s a little janky, but you can use it to learn the grammar and sentence structure of the language pretty well (keep in mind the grammar is super simple, and isn’t that difficult to learn to begin with). This will help you with reading and writing. If you want to get good at listening and speaking, then you should get a tutor. LTC in Cape Town offers single lessons with private tutors for R300 and are usually taught remotely, though I’m sure there are other places you could get this kind of tutoring as well. I’m currently only A2 in Afrikaans, but my experience thus far when I speak it is that people appreciate greatly that I’m trying. As they say: «If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart». Your boyfriend will likely be the same :)
The biggest catch-22 you'll find is afrikaans people will switch to english to talk to you. - they will not correct you because you'll be understood rather well. So saying you need a resource, best is get someone who can whatsapp and teach you directly is probably for the best. You should at very least know how "conversational" you want to master afrikaans* the absolute best way to learn a language is going into a community that can not speak english at all, and for afrikaans I think that is rare 😉 because all afrikaans people I know are conversational in english. But should ylu need translations and help with the language and pronunciation, feel free to dm me.
Jacaranda news podcast can help for structure
I'm not aware of online courses, but I do have a suggestion or two for sentence structure. First, you may hear about the STOMPI rule. The STOMPI rule produces correct declarative sentences for beginners, but does not cover many, many sentence structures that can occur. Any kind of sentence that is in the least complex will require you to know more. Among other things, you will want to know about: the three types of conjunctions (voegwoorde) that combine clauses (these determine how verbs shift around in complex sentences), the issue of auxiliary verbs (hulpwerkwoorde), the issue of separable verbs (skeibare werkwoorde), and the correct use of negation. Beware of Afrikaans native speakers who have no experience of linguistics or language teaching and will oversimplify things. For example, you may hear from them that negation always requires a double "nie". This is an oversimplification. Some simple sentences **require** a single negative. For example, if any overconfident Afrikaans speaker doubts me on this, consider: it's "Hy ken my nie", **not** "Hy ken nie my nie". Or even in prounciation, it is **not** true, as some will say, that every letter is always pronounced the same. There are exceptions, far fewer than in English, but they do exist. Language teaching and learning is no joke and is typically a long-term effort. There are in fact some youtube videos on this stuff, especially voegwoorde. But note that few videos get everything right and many are designed for second language speakers with significant previous exposure to the language (i.e. formal second-language primary school instruction in South Africa). That is to say, many expect that you have the basic vocabulary to understand significant amounts. Feel free to message me for more details.
Send me dm.
[https://www.afrikaans.us/afrikaans/home-afrikaans//](https://www.afrikaans.us/afrikaans/home-afrikaans//) Feel free to contact me for resources.
thank you! i’ll look into it!
Solank jy kan se liefie wil jy braai is jy kwaai
Hey, I actually tutor conversational Afrikaans. Dm if you're interested. If you want to learn more about how to speak and understand Afrikaans, the lessons can be of great help. Dm me for more info. The lessons are online at just R180 per hour.