South Africa 39

Listen to South Africa 39, a 59-year-old man from Grassy Park, Cape Town, South Africa. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 59

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 04/09/1958

PLACE OF BIRTH: Grassy Park, Cape Town

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Cape Coloured/mixed

OCCUPATION: teacher

EDUCATION: incomplete BA (Bachelor of Arts)

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

Subject lived in Saudi Arabia for 10 years.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Nadia Barnard

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 05/11/2017

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I was born in Grassy Park, here in Cape Town. In those days, I think people were born at home. We lived in Grassy Park for a few years. I was totally spoilt by my grandmother – maternal grandmother. For the first few li-, er, I’d say six, seven years of my life, I thought I owned everything. Everything belonged to me; I was totally spoilt rotten, and I think overconfident. In some ways, it did me w- good; in other ways not, because the next four years af- from six to ten, I had to learn when we moved away from my grandmother, that life is no longer what I want. There are other people, other forces and whatever. And I, I was lucky enough to realize that at that young age, so that I could adjust to the real life. You know it made a big difference, it made me think more; I have learned a lot in those four years. It changed a lot of things in my life; I was no longer a kid. I was an adult by the time that I reached ten. I was responsible like a adult; I was acting like an adult; everybody thought I was much older. In fact, today everyone that meets us thinks I’m the eldest one in the family, even though I’m the third youngest.

In 1994, South Africa changed, so a lot of people had to be retrenched so that they could make room for black people to come into companies. I was one of those, and happily I’ve left, and I decided to look elsewhere. Knowing that I could teach, I started — I applied for jobs in Saudi Arabia. They took me; initially I was setting up work for teachers. And then afterwards they said to me: “Don’t you want to teach?” I said: “I’m very able. I can teach.” And then I went to go teach in the classroom. A Arab child comes into my class with only Arabic background. By the time that I’m finished, by the end of that year, that child will read in English, and speak English, and understand what he’s reading. In one year. Because I used to — every lesson that I sat with, I used to change l- the lesson a little bit to create a sort of a game. And with playing games, it did magic for the kids. They e- all wanted to play; nobody wanted to leave school early. Parents come and fetch them ten, fifteen minutes earlier, that chi- child goes outside, says: “Dad, I don’t want to go home; please leave me ‘ til the end of the day, because we’re playing a game.” I used to play a grammar game, spelling game, anything, maths game, whatever, and, and give the k-k- kids a opportunity. And then the brighter ones: I used to leave them with the one that’s not as bright, because it rubs off on each other, and they help each other without realizing what they’re doing. And it, it benefits all the kids, because the, the brighter one reinforces what he learns, and the — and the one who doesn’t know, he’s actually learning something and understanding. And kids among themselves learn much better than with an adult trying to force it on them.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Nadia Barnard

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 13/11/2017

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

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