Charlize Theron was recently criticized for suggesting that her mother tongue, Afrikaans, is an endangered language. The actress was featured on the Smartless podcast, where she discussed growing up in South Africa with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett. In the interview, she said that she learned to speak English well after moving to the United States at the age of 19. Theron said it was easy for her to “lose” her South African accent.
She added that Afrikaans is not widely spoken, with only “about 44 people” “still speaking it”:
“It’s a dying language and it’s not a very useful language.”
As her words went viral on the Internet, Theron was met with harsh criticism from social media users. The Pan-South African Language Council (PanSALB) also punished the actress, calling her comments “dissatisfying”, “disturbing” and “inaccurate”:
“Mrs Theron’s words promote the common misconception that Afrikaans is spoken only by white South African ‘Boer’, which could not be further from the truth as 60% of Afrikaans speakers are black. .”
“With a market share of approximately 14%, it is one of the most widely spoken languages in South Africa.” Afrikaans is the mother tongue of about 8.4 million people worldwide.”
According to The Independent, the 2018 Community Survey conducted by Stats South Africa found Afrikaans to be the third most spoken language among family members, with 12.2% of individuals in the country speaking it. this language when conversing at their home.
Twitter responds to Charlize Theron’s Afrikaans comment.
Charlize Theron recently called herself hot water after claiming that her mother tongue, Afrikaans, is a “dead language” spoken by only “44 people”. In addition to criticizing her, PanSALB said Charlize Theron received “great respect from her country of origin” and asked her to use her position to emphasize the need for speaking her mother tongue. hers in public:
“We ask her to respect constitutional imperatives to promote social cohesion and to continue her commendable work of using her platform to highlight a number of important socioeconomic issues. influence on the continent, including the importance of participating in public life in one’s mother tongue.”
Following her comments, the actress was quick to react, with many taking to Twitter to refute her claims:
Tim Theron, a South African actor and director, commented on Charlize Theron’s statement on Instagram, writing:
“We’re incredibly proud of Charlize and all she’s achieved… But we’re also proud of our diversity as well as our wonderful and beautiful official language, one of a kind. it’s Afrikaans.”
@CharlizeAfrica Don’t make claims about the Afrikaans. Before you do a simple Google search: – Just to let you know “13.5% of South Africa’s population (7 million people) are native speakers, which is the third most spoken language in the country, after Zulu and Xhosa.”
– Ansu Le grange (@AnsuLegrange) November 16, 2022
I am honored to be one of only 44 people left in South Africa who still speak Afrikaans! https://t.co/COyu9JiB45 pic.twitter.com/Tw821M0Jgd
– Kiffness (@TheKiffness) November 17, 2022
He also said that millions of people speak Afrikaans at home:
“It’s not a ‘dead language’ nor is it just spoken by 44 people.” Millions of people say it, new songs and poems are created every day, movies are made, etc.”
As comments continue to pour in, it remains to be seen whether Charlize Theron will address the issue and respond to the outrage in the coming days.
Categories: Entertaintment
Source: vcmp.edu.vn