scholarly journals First-Year Students’ Views on Prescribed Book for Translation Practice: A Case Study of a South African University of Technology

Author(s):  
Aaron Mnguni

Translation as a field of study is fairly new in South Africa because before 1994, the official languages were English and Afrikaans and everybody was expected to know and use those languages. Consequently, there is not much about translation practice that is written by South African authors. Following this, translation books from outside South Africa are generally used and prescribed, thus stifling inherent experiences, since little is written by the South Africans themselves.  A total number of 46 language practice students participated in this quantitative study. This study explored challenges encountered by first year language practice students, when using their prescribed book, at the Central University of Technology, Welkom Campus. Results indicated that students were not benefitting maximally from using the prescribed book, which is by any standard an excellent book. The socio-cultural experiences of the students were missing, thus prevent students’ from mastering the subject content better. From the data collected, it is recommended, amongst other recommendations, that a bias towards books reflecting South African experiences be prioritized as well as also allowing students to participate in making book choices.

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.R. Mentoor ◽  
C. Friedrich

After more than ten years of democracy in South Africa, many of the previously disadvantaged segments of the community, especially Blacks, would have hoped that a new economic order would have been created. Instead, South Africa still has very high unemployment and even young Black South Africans with a degree are not guaranteed a job. The purpose of this research was to ascertain whether a traditional first-year university business management course with an entrepreneurial component can contribute to the entrepreneurial orientation of students. The major features of entrepreneurs and innovators are knowledge, skills and attitudes. While the imparting of knowledge and the development of skills development receive, respectively, thorough and sketchy attention in formal education, attitude is hardly addressed. The need for achievement, innovation, locus of control and self-esteem are the variables of attitude that have been most commonly used in research on business motivation and the entrepreneur. To determine the success of an enterprise education course, therefore, the change in attitude of the students can be used as a measure. The instrument that was used to gauge the entrepreneurial attitude orientation of the students was an adaptation of an Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation (EAO) scale. The authors tested 463 students using a pre-test and post-test approach, incorporating an experimental group and a control group. The results of this study do not augur well for the improvement of the entrepreneurial orientation of students.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  

The South African government implemented different legislative mechanisms in an attempt to address gender equality in the workplace, discrimination, and empowering women. To review whether there has been any progress after implementing these legislative mechanisms, this paper empirically analyzes the advancement of gender equality in the South African workplace as of 2020. It also provides an overview of different legislative mechanisms implemented by the government of South Africa as an endeavor to achieve gender equality in the workplace and equal opportunities for all regardless of gender. The main objective of this paper is to review gender equality progress in the South African workplace and a qualitative research method has been used to analyze different gender inequalities. Lastly, the paper provides an overview of gender equality analysis in different occupational levels in the South African workplace. The research shows that regardless of the South African government’s different legislative mechanisms to address gender equality, progress is still gloomy as discrimination against women in the workplace continues and the men remain dominant. The data analyses conclude that progress in addressing gender equality has been inert, delaying equal opportunities for all South Africans.


1985 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-145
Author(s):  
Benjamin Kline

Liberalism in South Africa has had a history of importence because of its failure to adhere consistently to the belief that when the ‘loss of liberty for non-whites’ occurs, it ‘inevitably meant [the] loss of liberty for whites as well’. Instead, the predominantly English-speaking South Africans who backed this movement have attempted to promote liberal ideals while maintaining their white prerogatives, and have subsequently found the two to be ‘incompatible’.1 As a result, neither the uncompromising Afrikaner Nationalists nor the demanding Africans and revolutionaries have supported liberalism, and those South Africans in the middle have been discouraged by its vacillating nature. The National Union of South African Students is an example of a liberal organisation's inability to solve this dilemma. Initially Nusas concentrated on academic needs, following a ‘students as such’ policy, and then later transformed its ideals into a ‘students in society’ view, becoming socially active in defiance of the Nationalist Government.2


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-444
Author(s):  
Amanuel Isak Tewolde

Many scholars and South African politicians characterize the widespread anti-foreigner sentiment and violence in South Africa as dislike against migrants and refugees of African origin which they named ‘Afro-phobia’. Drawing on online newspaper reports and academic sources, this paper rejects the Afro-phobia thesis and argues that other non-African migrants such as Asians (Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis and Chinese) are also on the receiving end of xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa. I contend that any ‘outsider’ (White, Asian or Black African) who lives and trades in South African townships and informal settlements is scapegoated and attacked. I term this phenomenon ‘colour-blind xenophobia’. By proposing this analytical framework and integrating two theoretical perspectives — proximity-based ‘Realistic Conflict Theory (RCT)’ and Neocosmos’ exclusivist citizenship model — I contend that xenophobia in South Africa targets those who are in close proximity to disadvantaged Black South Africans and who are deemed outsiders (e.g., Asian, African even White residents and traders) and reject arguments that describe xenophobia in South Africa as targeting Black African refugees and migrants.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
N G Mugovhani ◽  
Lebogang Lance Nawa

This article discusses and raises awareness about the socio-economic plight of indigenous musicians in South Africa. Through a qualitative case study of the Venda musician, Vho-Talelani Andries Ntshengedzeni Mamphodo, dubbed the “Father of mbila music,” the article highlights the fact that the welfare of Black South African artists, particularly indigenous musicians in South Africa, is generally a precarious affair. Their popularity, at the height of their careers, sometimes masks shocking details of exploitation, neglect, and the poverty they are subjected to, which are exposed only after they have died. Empirical data identifies this as a symptom of, among other things, cultural policy and arts management deficiencies in the promotion of indigenous music. The article aims to find ways to redress this unfortunate situation, which is partially a product of general apathy and scant regard that these artists have perennially been subjected to, even by their own governments, as well as some members of their societies. All these factors mentioned are compounded by ignorance on the part of South African artists. Part of the objective of this study was to establish whether the exposition of the Vhavenda musicians is a typical example of all Black South African indigenous musicians and, if this is the case, whether the suggested ways to redress this unfortunate situation could contribute to or play a role in alleviating the plight of such artists in the entire country.


Author(s):  
Christopher Ballantine

Christopher Ballantine’s focus is on timbre, in particular the timbre of the singing voice, and how this combines with the imagination to create meaning. His investigation is largely philosophical; but the growth in popularity of opera in post-apartheid South Africa provides empirical means for Ballantine to indicate this powerful but analytically neglected way of creating meaning in the performance of music. His case study shows how timbre can produce musical experiences that have a particular, and often surprising, resonance. Through interviews with leading figures in South African opera, Ballantine demonstrates that timbre is a vital wellspring of imagined meaning; it should especially be seen thus if we seek to understand the singing voice in a sociopolitical context such as that of South Africa during and after apartheid.


Author(s):  
Khosi Kubeka ◽  
Sharmla Rama

Combining the theories of intersectionality and social exclusion holds the potential for structural and nuanced interpretations of the workings of power, taking systemic issues seriously but interpreting them though social relations that appear in local contexts. An intersectional analysis of social exclusion demonstrates to what extent multiple axes of social division—be they race, age, gender, class, disability or citizenship—intersect to result in unequal and disparate experiences for groups of youth spatially located in particular communities and neighborhoods. A common reference point is therefore power and how it manifests at the intersection of the local and global. A South African case study is used to explore the subjective measures and qualitative experiences of intersectionality and social exclusion further. The unique ways that language intersects with space, neighborhood, and race in the South African context, enables opportunities in education and the labor market, with profound implications for forms of social exclusion.


Author(s):  
Michael Reddy

September 2014 marked the release of the 2013/14 crime statistics in South Africa by the National Commissioner of the SAPS and the Minister of Police. Does a sense of safety and security fill the atmosphere? Do most South Africans, investors, and tourists alike believe that the crime rate in South Africa is reflective of a war zone and that South Africa is in a quagmire that engenders irretrievable damage to the lives of the citizenry and the economy? It is accepted that crime is a conflation of a number of economic, social and cultural factors; hence as a reviewable point, can the SAPS ensure the development of unassailable and perpetual policy solutions, underpinned with the highest quality that provides a guarantee of the citizen’s basic constitutional right to freedom and life. This article reviews literature on TQM and extrapolates lessons learnt to the practical functioning of the SAPS with a view to provide a myriad of TQM principles that may be considered by SAPS Management; this could serve as a catalyst for an improved policing service in South Africa.


2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 420-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Steyn

Green, Sonn, and Matsebula's (2007) article is useful in helping to establish and develop whiteness studies in South African academia, and thus to shift the academic gaze from the margins to the centre. The article is published in the wake of three waves of international whiteness studies, which successively described whiteness as a space of taken-for-granted privilege; a series of historically different but related spaces; and, finally, as part of the global, postcolonial world order. Green, Sonn, and Matsebula's (2007) contribution could be extended by more fully capturing the dissimilarity in the texture of the experience of whiteness in Australia and South Africa. In South Africa whiteness has never had the quality of invisibility that is implied in the ‘standard’ whiteness literature, and in post-apartheid South Africa white South Africans cannot assume the same privileges, with such ease, when state power is overtly committed to breaking down racial privilege.


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