WAG Anyone from south Africa here?

[Jard.the.gymnast]

A girl from south Africa is training with our team for quite some time now, and I want to show her some interest in her country/language/culture. She speaks some Dutch and good English, but I'd like to know some basic terms in South African (if the language is called that).

The gymnast in question seems to be popular in SA, but I don't feel comfortable putting her name out there

Some terms I would think are useful to know:
Floor
Vault
Beam
Bars
Forwards
Sidewards
Backwards (as in bhs or bwo. Both floor and beam are in a forward/sideward and backward rotation)
Side aerial
Back handspring
Front handspring
Front tuck
Conditioning
Stretching

I hope someone can help me, I honestly don't even know if there are any south Africans out there

 

[MILgymFAM]

I can’t help you, but I wanted to say that there are like 4-5 languages used in South Africa, I believe. My daughter is loosely studying Afrikaans, so I know it’s related to Dutch. Do you know which language she speaks? Might help for anyone who could translate. Good luck- it’s really nice of you to try and learn some of this stuff!

 

[John]

My DD and I met some girls from South Africa when she was in usaigc, at worlds. They were were extremely nice group of young ladies.

 

[coachmolly]

Not from South Africa, but I used to know some people in the gym world with roots in South Africa. English is very common, in fact the South African Gymnastics Federation website is entirely in English (as I believe is a good portion of media and government documents). So unless she's from a strange circumstance, I imagine most of her gymnastics vocabulary would be in English. There are a lot of other languages spoken there, it's hard to guess at what her native language is without knowing where she is from. I went to college with some girls from Cape Town who primarily spoke English but also spoke Afrikaans which is rooted in the Dutch language. So with you knowing English and Dutch, your communication with her should be pretty good.
South Africa is a really interesting country, I'm sure she will appreciate you taking an interest in where she is from!

 

[Jard.the.gymnast]

I believe she's from Port Alfred. Her English is pretty good and she can understand Dutch reasonably, so it's not that we can't communicate. My English accent isn't great however so I'm not always understandable

 

[coachmolly]

I just remembered that the family of a girl I used to coach came from South Africa. Her dad was from Cape Town and spoke English and Afrikaans, though I think mostly English. Her mom was from a part of South Africa with a large population with German roots and spoke English and German. I'm pretty certain her gymnastics terminology is mostly based in English, though their might be a few variations of skill names.
Your English here is excellent! So I'm sure you communicate very clearly.

 

[josie55]

Try this:
http://www.translate-afrikaans.com/en/dictionary-english-afrikaans/gymnastics

 

[Taxidriver]

I have a few friends that are South African and their first language is English I believe one of them speaks a little Afrikaans, think another speaks Zulu and another language not sure about the others.
My understanding, and I may be wrong, is there are something like 10 languages spoken in South Africa and white South Africans speak predominantly English or Afrikaans as a first language where as there are a greater range of languages amongst black South Africans, I think the language spoken depends where in South Africa you’re from and most South Africans speak more than one language.
I’m sure just talking to her and asking her about what it’s like in South Africa where she lives and asking her what her first language is would show her you’re interest in her country/language/culture and she would appreciate that.

 

[PinPin]

I'm from South Africa. If you can let me know what the gymnast's mother tongue is I could perhaps help you.

 

[Jard.the.gymnast]

I'm from South Africa. If you can let me know what the gymnast's mother tongue is I could perhaps help you.

I'll Pm you

 

[duyetanh]

Don’t forget there is google translator...it is awesome!

 

[Jard.the.gymnast]

Don’t forget there is google translator...it is awesome!

Unfortunately not for gymnastics skills....

 

[duyetanh]

I just tried it and it worked! If you use general terms you should be ok