How can the South African situation broaden student’ notions of language and identity as they become “world citizens”?

            South Africa is a nation that can teach students a lot about language and its connection to identity in a way that helps them become better world citizens because it parallels the global community in many ways. Just like the world has many different languages, South Africa is a place that is a concentration of many different languages that are actively used. On top of the eleven official languages there are additional African languages, languages of immigrants, and hybrid languages such as Tsotsitaal. In addition, both the global community and South Africa have one dominate language, English, that is used as a common communicator, just like in the increasingly westernized world. With this situation language, in a way, embodies many of the struggles that come about as a result of globalization. For example, the desire to keep ones cultural identity alive in part through the use of one’s native language yet the knowledge that English will reach a larger audience since more people in South Africa and in the world speak it. This is also true with other aspects of culture such as dress; if someone were to go to a job interview in traditional dress, they would be less likely than someone who wore a suit to get most jobs.     
          Many people in South Africa speak multiple languages which adds to the complexity of language as an identity just like language as an identity becomes increasingly complex with the cross cultural communication that is facilitated by modern technology. Also, language as an identity in South Africa is fluid and changing, just like it is in the rapidly changing global community. English was used as a unifying language during the struggle against the apartheid government by blacks in South Africa. They used it as a language to communicate amongst themselves and as a language to communicate with the rest of the world. Adding to the complexity of language, many blacks prefer to use English, instead of their native African language, because it is more useful and also because the different African languages were used as a tool to divide the black population during apartheid.
           South Africa can be seen as almost a microcosm of the world as far as language goes. Therefore, it provides a great reference to international cooperation because one can see how different policies meant to address a multicultural and multilingual population work in practice since there is one government presiding over a single, diverse population. Also, by studying how different groups in South Africa, such as advertising or advocacy groups, address their audience and what audiences they choose (do they try to target all South Africans or do they focus on just a particular group?) and why they make the choices they make, students can learn a lot about presenting material to a diverse population. As the global community grows and there is increasing collaboration between different cultural groups, one must consider a diverse constituency when addressing his/her audience more and more. Studying South Africa can help students do this.


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~Caitlin