The paper making fun continues

The paper we made the day before had dried (thanks to the help of some trusty hairdryers and a couple of ovens) and yesterday at 1pm it was time to go back to Mary Waters and let the 8 students decorate the paper they've made.

We gave them each fun facts about the environment that Remy had written on leaves and they all seemed generally interested and shocked by the difference that recycling could make in the world. This was just what they needed to get them motivated to get those paintbrushes wet and make their statements on the paper they have created.

Yellow and green paint soon covered as much paper as it did faces and the students found the most creative ways to go about getting their message across. From dipping the ends of leaves in paint to write with to pasting pieces of extra paper on the paint, every 'artwork' was unique. Messages such as 'save wood 4 our future' and 'recycling is simply the best' was painted down and sooner than we thought play time was over again and the mess had to be cleaned.

With a dougnut in hand the students left, but dont fear, not for long. All the students were eager to come to our exhibition next week Wednesday at the Barracks lecture theatre. So with a list of names and numbers we left the school, securing that we can bring our learners to the exhibition of their work. The paper workshops were a success!

The problem of communicating in a country with 11 official languages

Recently, the sound slide team has encountered a problem. In a country where people speak 11 official languages, what language should the piece we are creating be in? Most of the learners at the school where the anti-littering campaign was held spoke Xhosa, and so then it goes without saying that the audio is to a large extent in Xhosa. On the other hand, the internet where this sound slide will ultimately end up is conducted mostly in English. The intended audience is for children in Grahamstown, but school children in Grahamstown also speak both English and Xhosa. This is a common problem in most of South Africa; a large part of our media is conducted in English, but the majority of the population is fluent in other languages. Many non-English speakers feel that their own languages are not given as much prestige and English is always seen as the appropriate language for most media. This was also true in terms of our sound slide production, as lecturers preferred as to put the piece in English. We considered creating two sound slides, one in English and one in Xhosa, but that would mean taking out important quotes in Xhosa in order to make sure all of it was in English; ultimately this would detract from each piece. We were not prepared to sacrifice quotes, just because of the language they were spoken in. Ultimately, we decided that the most democratic way to approach this problem was to provide a transcript that shows English and Xhosa translations. This means that it can be accessed by all, and at the same time, not give preference to either language. In a world were English is seen as universal and absolute, creating media in South Africa becomes increasingly complex. Media in one language ultimately isolates other languages, and to find a democratic way in presenting both has become quite difficult. Non-English speakers feel that their languages are being isolated and are expected to be able to communicate in the media as journalists in English. Is this idea skewed? A lot of rhetorical questions can’t solve the problem but it something that every South African journalist will have to answer for themselves.