Building the nation one Zulu word at a time
With his daily posts and book Everyday Zulu, Melusi Tshabalala is celebrating SA languages and culture
Being able to plop a pithy word from another language into your normal sentences is a great conversational skill. Apart from increasing your range of colourful colloquiums, it’s an ice breaker with people who assume you don’t speak their lingo, and a tool that shows willingness to expand your culture and better understand your colleagues. Many people have gained that skill by following Melusi’s Everyday Zulu on Facebook, where Melusi Tshabalala posts words along with entertaining stories about their meaning. Over time, you amass a portfolio of amusing, clever or punchy words that can be lobbed in to great effect. “People are throwing in isiZulu words and finding it quite fun,” he says. “One man told me he used one of the words in the boardroom and everybody laughed, and afterwards he had coffee with people he hadn’t talked to before.” Sometimes Tshabalala comes up with a ridiculous story first, often involving his three children, and picks a word to build it around. Other times he t...
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