Usually in the media we learn about three or four countries that are English-speaking.

If you’ve been following our blog, you may remember.

The first countries that come to my mind are: England, The USA, Canada, Australia, and South Africa.

South Africa?

Yes! South Africa is a major English-speaking nation!

If you read the title of the video, maybe you’ve already noticed some differences in English from the US versus English from South Africa!

*Check out the word coloured, in the US we spell it without the letter u, as in colored.

We also DO NOT use this word to describe people in the US.

South Africa is the only country where is okay to call someone coloured.

Do not use it here, in the US.

Why does South Africa Speak English?

Well South Africa has 11 official languages, but….

The British and Irish also colonized South Africa at different points in South Africa’s history.

Not everyone speaks English, but it is the Lingua Franca– a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different.

Resources:

British diaspora in Africa – Wikipedia

Oxford Languages and Google – English | Oxford Languages (oup.com)