Languages

There's 11 official languages in S.A. including English which is the main language used in commerce,government+various places such as schools+the like as the majority speak English as their 2nd language.
After a couple of weeks I was used to the languages at COTT+could sing them with almost no problem -though I didn't understand what I was saying!

Afrikaans comes from Dutch+so is similar to German. As I did German briefly at school I find this the easiest to join in with.
Hello in Afrikaans is 'hallo' said 'ha-low'.
A typical line from a song is 'My al is op die altaar, en wagtend op die vuur'.

Xhosa+Zulu are similar+simply through participation in services I picked up how to pronounced these languages.
Hello in Xhosa is 'molo' said 'more-low', in Zulu+Swazi it's 'Sawubona' +I think it's said 'sa-wu-bona'!
For some more examples, 'Nkosi' is Xhosa+Zulu for 'Lord'+is pronounced 'co-see' +'Ungcwele' means 'Holy' in both languages+is pronounced 'un-*clicking/tutting noise with your mouth*-wele'.
A typical line from a Xhosa song is 'NDIZA kuwe, Wena Mvana, Ndingenazwi kup él' eli- Wandop éla, wandifela, Wandibiza ndiza kuwe.'
And a typical line from a Zulu song is 'Yi Бa-na Бakhonzi Бakho, Nxa Бefakaz'iqiniso; Nkosi, negentembiso yakho, Siph'ezinhle izifiso'.

Swazi is also fairly similar to Xhosa+Zulu +hello in Swazi is the same as in Zulu.

Tswana, Northern Sotho +Sotho are similar languages.
'Dumela' in Tswana is said 'du-mel-a' +means 'hello'.
A typical line from a Tswana song is 'Jesu, ke tla b ôt š ô ye e sa khutleng, Ya batsheg ô ba e leng, 'Tsala tseno leseding?'

The above languages,apart from Afrikaans,include letters that are sometimes silent but sometimes not, clicking with your mouth for certain letters+combinations of letters,+saying certain combinations of letters which don't include vowels which we don't have in our language such as 'tsh'.
Also, when S.Ans speak, many of them mix English and their own language. I mean, for example, they will say 5 sentences in Xhosa and then 1 in English, or will being taking in Tswana and then say a few words in English! This happens in generally conversation and even on TV like in their soaps! I found this V odd indeed.