Is Afrikaans, the language of the descendants of South African settlers, useless today? South African actress Charlize Theron’s frank commentary sparked lively reactions in the country, France Press reported.
As a guest on the SmartLess podcast hosted by Hollywood actors, Theron, 47, born in Benoni near Johannesburg and now residing in the US, said her native language “wasn’t very helpful.”
“About 44 people still speak it, it’s definitely an endangered language. It’s not very useful,” the actress shared with a laugh. Her charlize Theron has also said that she could not speak English before arriving in the United States at the age of 19.
South Africa has 11 official languages for a population of almost 60 million people. Afrikaans is the third most common language (12.2%) after Zulu (25.6%) and Xhosa (14.8%), writes BTA.
“Charlize Theron may be an outstanding actress, but she is not well versed in her native language,” read a statement released by the small African party Freedom Front Plus, detailing the statistics.
“The use of Afrikaans in general has increased,” said one Twitter user in defense of the language. “You are disrespecting Afrikaans speakers and your family,” another social media user wrote.
“Be proud of your language, don’t force others to speak it,” read another Twitter comment. “Thank you Charlize Theron, this racist language is dying,” another South African wrote on social media.
