A faction of South Africa is having none of what Charlize Theron had to say about Afrikaans recently.
What did Charlize Theron say about Afrikaans?
The South African-born actress sent shockwaves across social media when, in an interview with the SmartLess podcast hosted by Sean Hayes, Jason Bateman and Will Arnett, she claimed Afrikaans, her native tongue, “is not a very helpful language.”
Taken in context, Theron’s comments were part of her reflection on how she came to learn the English language.
The Old Guard star, decades removed from her humble upbringing in the Afrikaner Benoni of pre-democratic South Africa, revealed on the podcast that she only learned English at the age of 19 when she moved to the United States (US) to pursue an acting career.
Her late acquaintance with English made it easy for her to drop the ‘South African’ accent when she moved to the US, the actress told the SmartLess hosts.
“That’s why it was easy for me to drop the [SA] accent because I was really learning English from scratch,” she said.
Things took an awkward turn when during the conversation, Theron mocked Afrikaans speakers, claiming there are “about 44 people still speaking it.”
” It’s definitely a dying language; it’s not a very helpful language,” she added.
Here’s how social media reacted
While Theron has yet to publicly address the backlash, on social media, South Africans were divided by the actress’ claims about Afrikaans.
Here are some of the reactions we picked out: