Page 235 - Handbooks of Applied Linguistics Communication Competence Language and Communication Problems Practical Solutions

Lingua franca communication in multiethnic contexts 213

The promotion of multilingualism is also crucial since is has been discussed
as a factor for facilitating intercultural understanding. The apartheid policy of
race segregation has frequently resulted in a mutual unawareness of the other
ethnicities’ cultural conventions. The following excerpt from the data collected
in a research project on identity construction in South African Englishes illus-
trates this lack of knowledge or awareness. Here, a Xhosa and a colored speaker
discuss how they gain a better understanding of each others’ cultural back-
grounds from watching soaps which are set against South Africa’s multicultural
background.

example (1):

S1 Isidingo, this it’s more/ it’s more interesting from
there as well. (..) You know at sometimes you know when
you get two wives. (.) It’s not, so easy [it’s not easy
S2 [to ... satis-
S1 to (XX) both] of them.
S2 fy both.]
S2 Ja, that is what [I also learnt now, yes.]
S1 [ ( X X X X X ) ]
S2 All that is [happening in Isidingo.]
S1 [That is what I] learned about their
culture now. And and and for for for me like we like we
say eh coloureds and black. So that soapies, teach you
a lot about/ when I watched Kaslam now recently, it was
about this um (..) lady’s hu- husband, who passed away.
[But she was] staying, she was staying in Joburg.
S2 [Okay.]
S1 Now they’ve got their own land, ne? What do you call it,
the/ the own/ the own countries like Transkei or Ciskei
that is their home/ you call it your homelands, ne? so
when, his body had to go to his homeland, his paren[ts
S2 [To get
S1 never/]
S2 burried.]
S1 Ja, to get buried. So his parents never knew [that he was
S2 [That he has
S1 married,] he’s got a wife
S2 got a wife.]
S1 You understand? So they wanted to control everything. But
only his brother knew (..) uh knew the wife. And so when
(.) they did/ his parents didn’t want to accept her.
Because she came with a a short skirt, she didn’t have
this thing (.) over her shoulder. And and (..) and then,
(..) well, then he told them that (.) um this was his
wife and that was his way of living eh with her in
Johannesburg. So they ei/ either they gonna accept her or