Boerejode do not exist cause I say so
So there I was on Friday, listening to someone asking whether there are Boerejode. He didn’t use that word but that’s what he was asking about, ie, Afrikaans speaking Jews.
He didn’t direct the question to me but I decided to be a know-it-all and answered his question in the affirmative. Yes, there are indeed Boerejode.
His response was one of incredulity; he couldn’t believe that there are Jews who speak Afrikaans — he’s never met a Boerejood. And that’s funny because I know of at least one such family.
It’s funny how our environment shapes our understanding of the world. Some of the things we consider weird or exotic are actually very much vanilla in other parts of the world. So why is it that so many of us are unwilling or unable to make that mental leap? Is it a form of hubris to want to define the world by the things we’ve experienced? Or rather, should I ask whether it’s a form of hubris to say ‘I’ve never encountered a Boerejood so ergo there can’t be any in existence’.
Is this error of thinking solely a ‘biased example’, or does it intersect with some other error of thinking that I have never heard of?
I recently found the blogs of two South Africans living in South Korea. I suspect that had I met them in person, I would’ve said “no way! I can’t believe it!” Surprises can cause people to blurt out all sorts of things, regardless of whether or not someone believes it or not
.
On a related note, one of the women I work with is a Jewish South African who speaks Afrikaans
. One day, another coworker was talking to me about Afrikaans. She didn’t know anyone who spoke the language other than me (or so she thought). In the middle of the discussion, the office’s one South African walked in and greeted me in die taal. We chatted very shortly, while the other coworker stared in shock. The timing couldn’t have been better!
VerdantSF
18 Mar 10 at 11:00 PM
Ha! Good story. Is this woman bilingual, or is she a regte, egte Afrikaansspeaking Jew who speaks English as a second language?
Joy-Mari Cloete
20 Mar 10 at 8:14 AM
English is her first language, though she’s quadrilingual
. She speaks English, Hebrew, Afrikaans, and French.
VerdantSF
20 Mar 10 at 8:24 AM