N
Fame Burst

Charlize Theron Is Facing Backlash After She Made A Remark About Afrikaans Language

Author

Sophia Hammond

Updated on March 26, 2026

Charlize Theron was recently chastised for claiming that her mother tongue, Afrikaans, is a disappearing language. The actress was featured on the Smartless podcast, where she discussed growing up in South Africa with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett. In the interview, she said that she learned to speak English well after moving to the United States at the age of 19. Theron said it was simple to “lose” her South African accent.

She added that Afrikaans is not widely spoken, with only “about 44 individuals” “still speaking” it:

“It’s a dying language, and it’s not a very useful language.”

As her words went viral online, Theron was met with harsh condemnation from social media users. The Pan-African Language Council (PanSALB) also punished the actress, calling her comments “dissatisfying”, “disturbing” and “inaccurate”:

Theron’s words promote the popular misconception that Afrikaans is spoken only by white South African ‘boere’ people, which cannot be different from the fact that 60% of Afrikaans speakers are black. “

Charlize Theron

“With a market share of around 14%, it is one of the most widely spoken languages ​​in South Africa.” Afrikaans is the mother tongue of about 8.4 million people globally.”

According to The Independent, the 2018 Community Survey from Stats South Africa found Afrikaans to be the third most spoken language among family members, with 12.2% of individuals in the country speaking the language. this when chatting at their home.

Twitter responds to Charlize Theron’s Afrikaans comment.

Charlize Theron was recently brought to a boil after claiming that her mother tongue, Afrikaans, is a “dead language” spoken only by “44 individuals”. In addition to criticizing her, PanSALB said that Charlize Theron was considered “very respectful” by her country of origin and asked her to use her position to emphasize the need to speak in her native language. mine. yourself in public:

See also  Viewers Criticize Shanae Ankney For Her Phony Apologies

“We urge her to respect the Constitution’s mandate to promote social cohesion and to continue her commendable work using her platform to highlight a number of economic issues. society. important influences on the continent, including the importance of participating in public life in one’s mother tongue.”

Charlize Theron

Following her statements, the actress received a swift response, with many turning to Twitter to refute her claims:

Tim Theron, a South African actor and director, commented on Charlize Theron’s podcast statements on Instagram, writing:

“We are incredibly proud of Charlize and all that she has achieved… But we are also proud of our diversity as well as our beautiful and wonderful official languages, one of which is English. Afrikaans.”

@CharlizeAfrica Don’t make claims about the Afrikaans. Before you do a simple Google search: – Just to inform you “13.5% of South Africa’s population (7 million people) are native speakers, which is the third most spoken language globally. world. water, after Zulu and Xhosa.”

– Ansu Le grange (@AnsuLegrange) November 16, 2022

I feel honored to be one of the 44 people left in South Africa who still speak Afrikaans!

– Kiffness (@TheKiffness) November 17, 2022

He also said that millions of people speak Afrikaans at home:

“It is not a ‘dead language’, nor is it a language spoken only by 44 people. Millions of people say it, new songs and poems are created every day, movies are produced, etc.”

As comments continue to pour in, it remains to be seen whether Charlize Theron will address the issue and respond to the outrage in the coming days.

See also  Ryan Giggs New Girlfriend: Is He Dating Zara Charles? Relationship Timeline

redirect post

previous article

Review of Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling’s relationship

Next post

Joe Rodon- All about professional footballer from Wales national team

Let the article source Charlize Theron Is Facing Backlash After She Made A Remark About Afrikaans Language of website

Categories: Entertaintment