Controversy (and some giggles) came about after South African-born Hollywood star Charlize Theron shared her thoughts on Afrikaans as “not a very helpful” language.
The actress went live on The SmartLess Podcast recently where the three hosts, Sean Hayes, Jason Bateman, and Will Arnett, touched on her mother tongue.
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For context, Charlize was born and raised in the East of Johannesburg, Benoni and grew up in an Afrikaans household. Her family ties also go all the way back to the second Boer War military.
Still, in the podcast interview, the award-winning actress stated, “there’s about 44 people still speaking it. It’s definitely a dying language; it’s not a very helpful language,” which has left many locals with a lot to say on Twitter.
‘Stick to Hollywood & leave us out of it’ — Charlize Theron dragged for calling Afrikaans ‘a dying language’https://t.co/OG7HsCAXtH
— Kyle Zeeman (@Justzeeman) November 17, 2022
How did Charlize Theron come up with that number? 😭😭💔
— Pumzile🇿🇦 (@PumPum_Radebe) November 16, 2022
The hosts then went on to ask her about her accent and how she has the American English accent down so perfectly. Charlize expressed that where she grew up in Benoni, the English language was not really spoken around her. Her only true exposure to English was when she was 19, around the time she moved to America. She also mentions that “that’s why it was easy for me to drop the [SA] accent because I was really learning English from scratch.”
So, to the ’44 people’ still speaking Afrikaans, do you agree with Miss Theron that the language is on its way out?
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Featured Image: @charlizeafrica/Instagram
