My Journey with Zulu begins...

Hello Dear Readers,

My name is Erik. I am a Master's student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an avid language enthusiast. I have studied a whole host of different languages, ranging from French to Yoruba (a language of Nigeria). I have a soft spot in my heart for African languages and cultures, and in this blog, I hope to take you through my process of learning an African language that is totally new to me: Zulu.

Zulu is one of the eleven (yes, eleven!) official languages of South Africa. It is classified as a Bantu language, so it shares similarities with other Bantu languages, like Swahili or Chichewa (the language of Malawi). It is in fact the 2nd most widely spoken Bantu language and the most widely spoken home language in South Africa, spoken by about 24% of the population.

Some of you may be asking... "Why on earth did this guy decide to learn Zulu?" Good question! It's actually a strange sort of story. I spent the past year of my life working as an economic consultant in Malawi (interesting experience, maybe more on that later). Due to its proximity to South Africa, Malawi absorbs a great deal of pop culture from South Africa, including music, fashion, and dance. It seems like every time I liked something in Malawi, someone would say that it came from "South." Hearing this, I began to develop a very keen interest in the culture of South Africa and started spending my time watching South African music videos and looking up South African fashion.

The story with Zulu starts at the verrry end of my time in Malawi: on my flight home actually. My itinerary had me with a long layover in Johannesburg airport. As I was waiting for my next flight (approximately 5 hours!), I walked around the airport, looked in some of the shops, and chatted with various people. Every so often, I would hear people chatting in a language that I could not identify. To my ears, it sounded absolutely beautiful and had a very interesting ring to it (probably because of the many click sounds). I immediately decided that I needed to learn this language. And after a little research, I found out that it was Zulu. And that's where the story begins.

After that time, I decided to do some research on careers that would fit my skill set in South Africa, and it just so happens that there are a number of consulting companies operating there that are looking for skill sets similar to mine. Seemed like a perfect fit!

So, now my plan is to develop a good working proficiency in Zulu, so that I can eventually move to South Africa for some time, get a job there, and integrate into the culture. Seems like an exciting prospect, no?