I know the tactical communication (i.e. lineouts) is in Afrikaans, since opponents have trouble understanding. It's a clever way to outsmart opponents.
The overall communication is in English though
remember when we used to have Dan Vickerman in the Wallabies who understood Afrikaans and worked out the Springboks lineout.
Is SA like most other countries in that you'll learn Afrikaans at a very early age, then be rigorously taught English after that and only really speak Afrikaans at home?
Is SA like most other countries in that you'll learn Afrikaans at a very early age, then be rigorously taught English after that and only really speak Afrikaans at home?
The large majority of schools in South Africa is public schools. In all these schools English is Compulsory and then learners have a choice between
other African languages where its compulsory to choose one. In majority of cases (not everyone) The Afrikaans speaking people choose Afrikaans as first language with English as second language and the English speakers choose English with Afrikaans as second language mainly because they find it easier to learn than the some of the other options they have. But as Heineken said there is quite a bit of different languages and a large majority of South Africa chooses not to learn Afrikaans in the first place and rather chooses something like Zulu.
Has it ever been put forward to unite under just 1 or 2 languages? I can imagine with so many language barriers it can make a country quite divided.
Yeah. But since then the calls have evolved a bit, and most of the calls are made even before the lineout starts. Especially in this year's WC will it be even more important not to use easy calls as Scotland, England & Ireland have guy(s) that understands Afrikaans.