CNN
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Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron is experiencing fierce criticism in South Africa just after declaring her mom tongue, Afrikaans, is “a dying language.”
The “Monster” and “Tully” star manufactured the feedback on Monday’s episode of the “Smartless” podcast, declaring that the language that she grew up speaking was fading out.
Theron, 47, who discovered she only figured out to discuss English fluently when she moved to the United States at 19, explained there’s “about 44 individuals still speaking” Afrikaans.
“It’s unquestionably a dying language, it is not a pretty helpful language,” she explained to hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett.
Theron’s remarks soon sparked a social media debate in South Africa. While some branded her sick-educated, many others agreed that Afrikaans was a “dead language.”
“Charlize Theron is a legend!” one particular Twitter commentator wrote. “Indeed Afrikaans is a useless language. It belongs in the previous. It’s a tool at the time utilized to oppress Africans.”
One more Twitter user claimed: “This assertion was made by Charlize Theron to appease Hollywood. I do not concur with her. As with all other languages, the Afrikaans language will have to be preserved.”
Tim Theron, a South African actor and director of no relation to Theron, commented below a clip of the podcast shared on Instagram: “We’re particularly proud of Charlize and all the things she has reached … but we’re also very happy of our variety and our incredible and attractive formal languages, of which Afrikaans is a person.
“It’s not a ‘dying language’, and it is not only spoken by 44 individuals. It is spoken by hundreds of thousands of folks, there are new tunes and poems getting composed every single day, videos designed and many others.”
CNN has contacted Theron’s associates for further remark.
On Thursday, the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB), which was set up to market multilingualism in the country, responded with a statement contacting Theron’s remarks “disturbing,” introducing that stats show Afrikaans is the 3rd most spoken language in the place.
“These feedback created by Ms Theron perpetuate the persistent false impression that Afrikaans is only spoken by white ‘boere’ South Africans, which could not be farther from the truth as 60% of the men and women that talk the language are black,” the statement mentioned.
The PanSALB went on to incorporate that Theron was held in substantial regard by South Africa and desired to “continue the commendable do the job of employing her system to highlight some of the significant socioeconomic difficulties that affect the continent such as the significance of taking part in public daily life working with one’s mother tongue.”
Afrikaans, a language to start with released by Dutch colonial settlers and imposed on non-whites by the apartheid routine, is a person of 11 formal languages identified in South Africa. It includes words from Asian Malay, Malagasy, Khoi, San, Xhosa, French and Portuguese.