South Africa-The Complete Experience

There was a time in traveling when people would visit the destinations of their choice, spend some time enjoying themselves and leave, never truly experiencing the culture of life in the place they had just been to. That's no longer an acceptable way to travel. Now people want to have fun and feel good about it too, by supporting countries with a strong track record in nature conservation and social welfare and by making sure their money reaches the local communities.

This is music to the ears of not only South Africans but citizens all over the African continent. This growing interest in responsible travel is being welcomed with open arms. Four African countries have been featured in the 2009/2010 list of “The Developing World's 10 Best Ethical Destinations”. The list, compiled by Ethical Traveler, identifies countries that are best protecting their natural environments, promoting responsible travel and building a tourism industry that benefits local communities.

Ethical Traveler is an international alliance working to harness the political and economic clout of tourism to support human rights and the environment. Argentina tops its list this year. South Africa ranks in ninth position, and has featured in the chart since 2006. Ghana debuts in fourth place, the Seychelles debuts in eighth position, and Namibia moves up to sixth place this year. South Africa has long been a pioneer in responsible travel, and has the potential to move far higher up the rankings if its tourism industry continues to embrace the opportunities presented.

Ethical Travel has said that each of the chosen countries provides tourists with the opportunities to experience nature at its most pristine and to allows them to interact with local people and cultures in a mutually enlightening and beneficial way. Sounds like the best kind of travel to me.

Speak like a Souf Efrikan

When you visit any country you'll find yourself in an unfamiliar culture. It's a fact of life. Just because it's unfamiliar doesn't mean you can't understand it before hand though.

Slang is a fascinating part of every culture and the whole point of today's post is to provide you with some of our favourite South African slang. This way you might be able to avoid some foolish mistakes. As you noticed there, I wrote "our favourite". Well, here at the Tourism Radio office we went around to everyone and asked them what their favourite piece of local slang is. We actually ended up with quite a list!

1. Just Now

"Like, I'll write that email just now"

This slang phrase has caused plenty of confusion the world over when South Africans travel or other cultures come here. Basically it means 'a while', or, with some people, 'whenever I feel like it'.

2. Howzit

"Howzit Maria! How you doing?"

Always a favourite for South Africans, howzit is very simply another way to say 'hello'. That's all. It sounds much cooler though.

3. Ja-nee

"Hey man, I heard your team lost the game, that sucks"
"Ja-nee"

Okay this one can be a little confusing. It's an Afrikaans term when directly translated to English means 'yes-no' which is of course a contradiction and makes no logical sense. When used as a slang term though, 'ja-nee' simply means 'oh well' or 'okay'. It's definitely a handy little phrase to use when you don't want to give away too much!

4. Bru

"Hey bru, you look good! How's it going?"

Bru is a shortened version of the word 'broer' which is Afrikaans for brother. That doesn't mean you're calling someone your brother though, it's actually a term widely used to mean 'friend'. You'll even find high powered businessmen using the word.

5. Lekker

"That party last night was really lekker."

This is another slang term taken from Afrikaans. It simply means that something is 'very nice' or 'great'. So if someone asked you how you are enjoying your holiday, you can respond with 'I'm having a lekker time'.


Those are our top 5 favourite slang terms but if you want to hear some more, check out http://www.tourismradio.co.za and find out how you can tune into Tourism Radio to hear some of our shows.