Assamese Mkumatela, a native Xhosa speaker, passed her master’s degree in translation at Stellenbosch University with distinction. (Photo: Stefan Els)
Asambese Mkumatela, a Xhosa native speaker, celebrated properly this past week when Stellenbosch University (SU) awarded her a master’s degree in translation, which she passed with distinction.
What further makes it a special achievement is that Assambese completed it in Afrikaans, her third language. However, this celebration was so much greater for her loved ones who did not know that she achieved this with a distinction.
“My friends knew, but my mother and family only heard it at the graduation ceremony. Everyone is so proud of me,” Asambese tells Rhewal.
She says that it was generally a wonderful experience for her to study at SU and she is especially full of praise for the lecturers, staff and fellow students at the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch.
Asambese is particularly grateful for the support they offered her, especially when her father died in the last year of her master’s studies.
“Losing my father was very difficult and I thought it would have a big impact on completing my studies, but I had an incredible support system and was able to complete my thesis in record time, as I had planned.
“My supervisor’s door was always open and she always motivated me to push through even in these difficult times.”
Thanks to funding from, among others, Ton Vosloo and Anet Pienaar-Vosloo, Asambese was able to complete her postgraduate studies worry-free. Since 2019, the Vosloo couple have made bursaries available for deserving students studying Afrikaans at postgraduate level at SU.
“Without those scholarships I would not have been able to complete my studies. I am eternally grateful to them because I never needed to ask for money and I have no student debt,” she says.
Asambese, a lecturer in Afrikaans at the Nelson Mandela University, has been speaking Afrikaans since childhood. She also understands Zulu, Setswana and Sesotho.
Her interest in languages began at school, where Afrikaans Home Language was one of her subjects. She explains that the wonderland of stories and books introduced her to the colorful richness of languages.
“I have always loved reading, expanding my vocabulary and learning new languages. This is also where my interest in Afrikaans began.”
She in gr. 4 won a book prize and this book, Fanie Viljoen’s The secret ingredient in Petra Pink’s banana breadis always one of her favorite books.
“It was my first own Afrikaans reading book. Even now when I pick it up I am reminded of how far I have come and achieved.”
Asambese Mkumatela, a Xhosa native speaker, passed her master’s degree in Afrikaans, her third language, at Stellenbosch University with honours. (Photo: Stefan Els)
Over time, her love for Afrikaans became stronger and stronger and when she was able to study further after school, she decided to enroll for a degree in Afrikaans and Dutch at SU. After that, Assamese did an honors degree in translation.
What piqued her interest in translation is the poetic and magical sound of languages, and the variety of expressions and words that exist in different languages.
“Language is so special and full of wonders for me; you are always learning new words and phrases and you can express yourself in various ways using different words and expressions.
“Knowing that something said in one language can be translated for someone who doesn’t understand the language is wonderful.”
The title of her thesis is “An investigation into the use of translation methods by Afrikaans language acquisition students”. With this study, Assamese investigated different translation methods that are specifically used by second language speakers of Afrikaans. Students who participated in her study had to translate different texts such as poems and articles.
“The purpose of the translation activities was to determine which methods they use to translate texts. With the questionnaires, I wanted to try to determine how they think about the use of translation in the second language classroom.”
Now that she has her master’s degree, Asambese hopes to use methods from her study for continued research on language acquisition and translation.
“I would like to promote multilingualism and diversity in language and this is something I will actively strive for.”
