Afrikaans, spoken in South Africa - yes, you can read a few words!

Problem
I was looking through an old copy of a newsletter from a South African reading group in Singapore from July 2003 when I came across a paragraph in Afrikaans. I can't read or understand a single word of Afikaans - or can I? I underlined a few words. Each time I re-read, I recognized more words. Then I found the English language translation, only in summary, underneath. I found I could pick out even more words.


The title was Afrikaanse Bybelstudiegroep in Singapoer.

First I recognised the word for Afikaans.

Secondly the second word caught my eye. Bybelstudiegroep. Bybel is bible. Studie is study. Groep is group.

I re-read. In is in. Singapoer must be Singapore.

I took another look. I spotted words which looked like Hindu and Buddism. Then I realised the third word was Moslem.

Answer
I can recognize these words and I bet you can too.

Afrikaans - English
A f r i k a a n s e - Afrikaans
B u d d h i s m e - Buddhism
b y b e l - bible
d i e - the
g r o e p - group
in - in
H i n d u ï s m e - Hinduism
Kontakperson - contact person
Moslemgeloof - (something to do with Moslem - ge in German is past tense or passive making a noun)
p e r s o n e - person
S i n g a p o e r - Singapore
s t u d i e - study
van - from
w e l k o m - welcome

That's fourteen words instantly recognized.

Now, if I translate using Google translate, let's see if we can easily remember a few more.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, speaker and author, teacher of English and other languages.