[imagesource: Flickr / Gage Skidmore]

It’s fair to say Afrikaners were very touched on their studios by Charlize Theron’s offhanded comment that Afrikaans is “a dying language” spoken by about “44 people”.

The Oscar-winning Hollywood star made the comments during an interview with the SmartLess comedy podcast featuring Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett.

Before we get to the backlash, here’s some added context via TimesLIVE:

Theron said she didn’t speak English until she was around 19 and only focused on learning the language when she left home.

“That’s why it was easy for me to drop the [South African] accent because I was really learning English from scratch,” she added…

“[Afrikaans is] not a very helpful language,” she added.

GET THE PITCHFORKS, KAREN AND KOOS!

A snippet of the reaction on Twitter (which may not make it through the weekend, in case you missed that):

Someone should inform Charlize Theron that her opinion about Afrikaans is important and that it is the home language of about 7 million SAns of which be far the majority is black. Also tell her that it is the majority language in the Western Cape and Northern Cape Provinces. https://t.co/Elau1oe1O2

— Barry Saayman (@SaaymanBarry) November 16, 2022

She forgot where she came from !! I am Afrikaans and will never talk bad about my mothertongue language! She was born in Afr, raised in Afr, it is a beautiful language! Lots of people wish they could speak or inderstand it#CharlizeTheron

— Debs (@Debbss7) November 17, 2022

@CharlizeAfrica hou jou by Hollywood meisie dis al wat jy ken deesdae en los Afrikaans uit. Moet nou nie soos ñ dowwe dolla klink nie https://t.co/4zLBKCOMbR

— MaKaHaRi 🇿🇦✨ (@MaKaHaRi1) November 17, 2022

Sy was Baie sarkasties. Wil haar amerikaanse vriend laat lag ten koste van haar vorige landsburgers. @CharlizeAfrica jy Moet jou bek hou

— TheeLioness (@TheeLioness7777) November 17, 2022

Those tweets were all handpicked by TimesLIVE and combined, have less than 15 likes.

There were actually many people who enjoyed a chuckle about it all because that’s really what you do after comments like that.

She dissed Afrikaans as a joke on a comedy podcast.

When the Afrikaans part of the national anthem comes

Charlize Theron: pic.twitter.com/VrzxscyEEW

— Michael sCULfield (@UncleCul) November 17, 2022

Lmao.

Someone changed the language demographics of South Africa for Afrikaans to 44 people, after the Charlize Theron’s comments. pic.twitter.com/J7ww3VGPM5

— Christopher (@ChristopherMpk) November 17, 2022

This Charlize Theron thing is painful because they can’t even boycott her.

— Bonisile M. (@Bonisile_RMS) November 17, 2022

Has AfriForum sued Charlize yet?

— Richard Poplak (@Poplak) November 17, 2022

It may be true, as Charlize says, that only 44 people in South Africa speak Afrikaans, but that doesn’t include the number of people who swear in it. There’s no better vloektaal.

— Gus Silber (@gussilber) November 17, 2022

When Charlize Theron hears Afrikaans in a LA restaurant. pic.twitter.com/XYBD38R7Fi

— Dumi Gwebu Edits (@dumigwebu) November 17, 2022

The 44 people that still speaks Afrikaans according to Charlize Theron pic.twitter.com/P2mcm0vbAG

— 🔴 WAYKZ 🔴 (@Waykz6661) November 17, 2022

did you know? according to charlize theron, 1 in 4 afrikaans speakers can be found in this video:pic.twitter.com/4vxFQrPvao

— zak (@zakareeee) November 17, 2022

According to the BBC, Afrikaans is the mother tongue of roughly 13% of South Africans. With a population of around 60 million, that’s just shy of eight million people.

It’s almost like Charlize was being hyperbolic for a laugh. On a comedy podcast. The nerve!

Oh no.

I just realised we are going to have to mention Steve Hofmeyr.

Fresh off announcing that he would be forever boycotting Dis-Chem, which reportedly sparked wild scenes of celebration among staff, Hofmeyr took a break from sharing conspiracy theories about the recent US midterm elections to weigh in on Charlize’s comments.

Via TimesLIVE once more:

“If it managed the first heart transplant it’s a useful enough language for me. Afrikaans is a marginalised language which is alive and well, regardless,” he said…

Steve claimed the Afrikaans community’s “last university has just been wrenched from us and still we find ways to produce admirable tertiary education”, while also joking that the language has “the most popular expletives on the continent!”.

He’s on the money with the expletives.

Even your most ardent soutie is prone to crying out in Afrikaans when load shedding kicks in.

Anyway, hy is trots:

Ek is #1uit44 wat trots Afrikaans praat.

— Steve Hofmeyr (@steve_hofmeyr) November 17, 2022

Lekker, Steve.

We’re happy for you.

[sources:timeslive&timeslive&bbc]