One of the things many websites, posts, bloggers etc. are encouraging us to do under lockdown is to “do something new”, or dust off an old interest we haven’t had time for. I decided to knuckle down and make a serious attempt to learn some Afrikaans; although just about everybody here can speak English, it is still the first or preferred language for about 40% of the local population. Rather like Welsh in West Wales.However, talking about Wales, I have managed to annoy Angie endlessly when we have driven into Wales; I tend to say very little on a car journey, except that on crossing the Welsh border, I begin to murmur in Welsh, reading all the road signs we pass, and mentally translating those that are not dual-language. So when I do say something, it’s unintelligible to her (languages not being her strong point anyway).
The same thing is now happening in our lounge. We spend chunks of time looking at things online, praying or reading the Bible quietly and individually, and then she hears me muttering something ... that she cannot understand. I am sat at my computer, earphones in, softly practicing my pronunciation, as one always must when learning another language. At least I am (usually) suppressing the temptation to actually reply to her in Afrikaans -- which of course is the most annoying of all ... and mercifully, I’m not good enough at it yet. Most of the time.
