Assignment heading and number: Final Portfolio

Your name and surname: Ntsako Mathebula

Student Number: 17226090
Group Number: AFL1501-23-S1-178T
Name of department and University (Department of African Languages, Unisa)
Course code and name (AFL1501: Language through an African Lens)
Name of Instructor: Dr. JO Nene
Name of TA: Nokubonga Jele
Due Date: 2023/05/22

Introduction:
In my assignment I will discussing my ideolect and ecolect and the ways in which
they have changed as I have grown and I will also discuss the sympathy that I have
developed for linguistic and cultural differences after going through the material in
this module. I will create a family tree in which I will demostrate the cultural and
linguistic differences in my family. I will conclude the assignment by responding to
ficticious comments made to me by characters regarding linguistic and cultural
differences based on the knowledge I have gained from this module and then I will
reflect on what I have learned from this module and what I will take away and
incorporate in my life going forward.

FIRST PORTFOLIO ACTIVITY:

My name is Ntsako mathebula and I am from Pretoria South Africa. My native tongue
is Xistonga. I grew in the township of Mamelodi where a mixture of languages are
spoken. This mixture has been recognized and unofficially accepted by the people of
Pretoria and has been termed ‘Sipitori’. I adopted this language and it is the
language that I speak at home with my Mother, who is the person that I live with. I
have attended English-speaking schools for my entire life and I am the most
comfortable using English to communciate and so I regard English as the language
of my heart. Growing up in the township yet attending schools that were located in
the suburbs has made me bilingual and has created a love for languages within me. I
moved to the suburbs in middle school and I interacted with people who only or
mainly spoke English. This drew me further away from speaking the African
languages that I know because I no longer had the opportunities to use them.

SECOND PORTFOLIO ACTIVITY:

I believe a difference in culture can affect the relationship between two people. W
(Mathebula, 2023)hen I was younger, I found it rather uncomfortable calling my
friends parents by their names, and this would upset some of the parents whereas, I
was only trying to show them respect as I was taught for my entire childhood. It took
a lot from me and made me very uncomfortable to refer to an adult by their first
name, as this was unheard of where I was raised. So that caused an issue between
them and myself and I had to adapt to my surroundings as this was the way of
everybody else in my new environment. Had I insisted on remaining the same it
would cause me to become isolated and this could’ve led to me missing out on the
opportunities that are present. I had to become one with the people in my new
surroundings and yet still remember that different environments have different
cultural requirements.
In order to overcome these problems, it would be wise to adopt a learning mentality,
this means that it is important to accept advice and information from different
sources however it would also be wise to have the ability to distinguish and analyze
the information in order to tell which information is worth learning and which isn’t.
Another skill would be the skill of adapting, it is important to be able to adapt to
environments as the lack of this skill will result in a person getting left behind
regarding information and social opportunities. People from different cultures may
distance themselves from you if they realize that there is too stark of a difference and
no resolution or compromise in sight.

Being open-minded and polite tells the other person that you are willing to learn
about things from their perspective and this encourages them to attempt to look at
things from your perspective. This might be beneficial as you might find some
common ground in the information that you both know and create room for
opportunities. (Mathebula, 2023)

2.
This module has definitely had an impact on how I view my cultural identity. I have
gained a sense of pride about the person that I am and my background which I was
not too clued up about. I am now more willing to explore more and find out about
aspects of my culture that I had thought to be important in the context of the world
and I now want to claim my culture with pride and contribute to showcasing the many
beautiful aspects and ideas that it has to offer.

3.
I was taken aback by a post from Andisiwe Mazantsi in which she encountered a
misunderstanding where she referred to someone as a ‘jackal’ as a result of their
intelligence and their love for laughing. This comment was taken the wrong way and
caused some tension between them. This is another example of a misunderstanding
that can be caused by language. In Andisiwe’s language, her intention by making
that comment was clearly not to insult her but to give her a compliment and it
resulted in the two of them being upset by the matter. (MAZANTSI, 2023)

I was really interested and surprised by Desree Muthivhi’s post. She explains that
while she was talking to an elder, she greeted the person by saying “Good
afternoon” which to any from the English language and follows a Western approach,
which I do, sounds like a fairly polite greeting. However, in her culture, it is expected
of her to bow and lean a little to the side while greeting. She was not aware of these
formalities and was met with an unhappy reaction to her well-intentioned gesture.
(MUTHIVHI, 2023)

These students’ posts highlight the problems that people face in respect of cultural
and linguistic identity. They are not the only ones and it is very important to educate
people both older and younger to bridge the gap between the traditions of old and
the ever-changing modern traditions.
THIRD PORTFOLIO ACTIVITY: FAMILY TREE
Delinah Ubisi - GRANDMOTHER
Mother tongue - Xitsonga
Lucky Mathebula - Mother
Mother tongue – Xitsonga
Aunt X1 (Deceased)
Agnes Mathebula Khumalo - (Xitsonga
from Pretoria)
Mother tongue - Xitsonga
Cousins
Faith Mathebula (Xitsonga from
Phalaborwa)
Themba Mathebula (Xitsonga from
Phalaborwa)
Tshulani Khumalo (Xitsonga from
Pretoria)
Macbeth Khumalo (Xitsonga from
Pretoria)
Me - Ntsako Mathebula
(Xitsonga/English from Pretoria)
Nkateko Mathebula (Xitsonga from
Pretoria)
Nieces
Mpho - (Sotho from Pretoria)
Tlotlo - (Sotho from Pretoria)
George Mathebula – GRANDFATHER
(Phalaborwa) (Deceased)
Mother tongue (Xitsonga)
Uncles
Ezrom Mathebula - (Xitsonga from
Pretoria)
Patrick Mathebula - (Xitsonga from
Pretoria)
Victor Mathebula - (Xitsonga from
Pretoria)
Mother tongue – Xitsonga (All)
Cousins
Bernice Mathebula (Northern Sotho)
from Pretoria)
Vanessa Mathebula (Xitsonga from
Pretoria)
Bogolo Mathebula (Sotho from
Pretoria)
Botle Mathebula (Sotho from Pretoria
Amukelani Mathebula (Sotho from
Pretoria)
Tumelo Mathebula (SeTswana – from
Johannesburg)
Ushindi - (Xitsonga from Pretoria)
Khensani (Sepedi from Pretoria)
Khensani (IsiXhosa from Cape Town)
Nephews
 Letlogonolo (Sotho from
Pretoria)
 Kgomotso (Sotho from
Pretoria)
 Andile – (Xitsonga from
Phalaborwa)
Nieces
Ntsako – (Sotho from Pretoria)
Oratile - (Sotho from Pretoria)
Mpho - (Sotho from Pretoria)
Tlotlo - (Sotho from Pretoria)
FOURTH PORTFOLIO ACTIVITY:

1. I decided to have a traditional wedding instead of a modern wedding

because even though they’re old-fashioned, they are a part of my identity
and another way of looking at it would be that modern weddings are more
common nowadays so it would be a unique in a way. Also, even though
I’m not traditional, I do belong to the Tsonga culture and i felt closer to my
roots and I made a unique memory that I’ll share with my children. If
tradition does fade away in the future, I’ll be able to show them how
weddings are done in their culture and it might inspire them to do the same
which will make them proud of who they are and might spur them into
doing research to learn more about their culture. I have nothing against
modern weddings and I actually always dreamed of having a white
wedding but there are elements of the traditional wedding that were
appealing to me, such as the traditional food that was catered, which I
don’t really get the opportunity to eat much as it doesn’t get sold in the
modern restaurants, which is a shame and is something that I hope will
change in the future.

2. I might have to disagree with you on this. I view religion and culture as
two separate ideas and I practice each one independently of the other. I
was not raised to believe in ancestors, I was, however, raised to believe in
God. Culture to me would include idiolect and ecolects, in other words the
way in which I speak and act towards certain people, the various customs
to be followed in respect of culture and certain ideas about various topics. I
do have to reiterate that, I was raised to follow a more modern approach to
culture and this type of approach is more of a flexible one, in that, I have
the choice of which aspects of the culture I wish to preserve and practice,
while still respecting the culture. I distinguish culture from religion. Religion
guides the ideas that I choose to follow that govern my spiritual beliefs. I
do however, use the principles from both my culture and religion hand in
hand. Which means that where there are some aspects in my religion or in
my culture that I do not necessarily agree with, I will still make an
independent choice on how I will act but I’ll use those principles as a guide
in my thinking.

3. The issue of gender roles and categorizing certain activities based on

gender is, in my opinion, a rather outdated one and I also believe can be
quite problematic in the long-term. It prohibits people from doing things
that they are actually passionate about and which they could excel at
without these stigmas that exist. In ballet, for example, men are needed to
balance the equation as they naturally have an element that is beneficial in
ballet, which is strength. Women have strength as well but it makes sense
for a man to be picking a woman up in plays. Women can pick other
women up as well, but it makes room for couples who want to partake in
 the activity together to do so. This line of thinking can also be limiting, in
that, most of the duties and careers that were once thought to be male
activities, tend to pay more than those that belonged to women. This
becomes a problem because it automatically means that women get paid
less for no substantial reason. This would amount to a form of
discrimination and would only result in problems in the future. People
should do what they enjoy doing without being judged by others.

Final Reflection:

1. Linguistic identity has to do with the sense of belonging to a community

created through various elements such as language and the relationship that
we have to language. It refers to a person’s identity as a person who is able
to speak or more languages and is influenced by various factors such as
linguistic expertise, being affiliated to other languages and also familial
inheritance. It sognificantly contributes to who a person is as a cultural entity.
This is because “The language(s) and connected culture that a person grows
up in defines who they can relate to” (Graves, 2020)

2. I am an only child from a single-parent family and I think that this experience
has instilled some valuable characteristics that will help me tackle the never-
ending challenges that life has to offer. These qualities include resilience,
being self-motivated, being firm in my beliefs, and sometimes when needed,
the ability to be selfish. Language has an effect on a person’s identity as there
are many stereotypes and beliefs that people have regarding the various
cultures and these beliefs were around and perpetuated a long time before I
was born and will still be perpetuated a long time after I have left the earth.
However, it can also bring people together. Knowing that there are other
people who have had similar experiences to yours because they also belong
to the same culture or speak the language allows people to bond and have
conversations about their similarities and experiences. It also allows people to
view things from different perspectives.
References
Graves, T., 2020. What is a linguist identity. Buffalo: s.n.

Mathebula, N., 2023. N/A, Johannesburg: Ntsako Mathebula.

MAZANTSI, A., 2023. N/A, s.l.: ANDISIWE MAZANTSI .

MUTHIVHI, D., 2023. N/A, s.l.: DESREE MUTHIVHI .

PLAGIARISM DECLARATION

1. I know that plagiarism means taking and using the ideas, writings, works or inventions
of another as if they were one’s own. I know that plagiarism not only includes verbatim
copying, but also the extensive use of another person’s ideas without proper
acknowledgement (which includes the proper use of quotation marks). I know that
plagiarism covers the use of material found in textual sources and from the Internet.

2. I acknowledge and understand that plagiarism is wrong.

3. I understand that my research proposal must be accurately referenced.

4. This research proposal is my own work. I acknowledge that copying someone else’s
research, or part of it, is wrong, and that submitting identical work to others constitutes a
form of plagiarism.

5. I have not allowed, nor will I in the future allow anyone to copy my work with the
intention of passing it off as their own work.

6. I confirm that I have read and understood UNISA’s Policy for Copyright and Plagiarism
- https://www.unisa.ac.za/sites/corporate/default/Apply-for-admission/Master%27s-&-
doctoral-degrees/Policies,-procedures-&-forms

Name Ntsako Mathebula……………………………………………… Student No:

17226090 ............................................