I had a wonderful experience at the chemist the other day. As I was standing waiting for my credit card to go through, I was listening to the 4 ladies behind the counter having a chat.
Initially they were having a wonderful gossip about someone and how to handle that someone. This conversation was between three of them. One black woman and two coloured women, they were all speaking Afrikaans. Which, in my opinion, is the best language in which to gossip. It's a gutteral language that comes from the back of the throat and is full of onomatopioa and words and phrases that cannot be translated directly into English. Even the word for gossip sounds like what it is. Skinner - pronounced 'skunner', with the R at the end rolling around like the aftertaste of a Cabernet Suavignon.
While I was waiting, they were joined by a tall blonde woman who addressed them in German. Without hesitation and without thought, they all switched to German. Then two of them broke off to speak in Afrikaans again. At which point they were interrupted by a customer speaking English, and of course they responded to him in English. My credit card went through and the Blonde lady spoke to me in English too. All this swtiching between languanges happened without comment from them, and they were all flawless in all three. The whole conversation was fluid and lyrical in a way I have never heard.
It seems as though, in Namibia, you can pick the pieces of the three languages that best express your thoughts, and because almost everyone has the same smattering of those languages, they understand you. Having the choice of languages almost adds another language, one that only a small set of people in the world speak and it gives them intimate knowledge of what you mean to say.
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