In 1990 TALK laid the foundations of all our peace work. Initiated by our visionary founding member Liz Johanson-Botha, TALK has over the years contributed to the nation building project in South Africa.

TALK uses African language and intercultural learning as a vehicle through which to build effective workplace and personal relationships based on mutual understanding, respect and trust. Its courses are based on the belief that language learning is a social, not an academic activity, and that language needs to be learnt in the context in which it will be used. Hence, every learner enrolling for a TALK course is paired up with a mother-tongue speaker of the target language. This person is known as a language helper, and can be a friend, colleague or employee of the learner, or someone provided by Phaphama. Within this one-on-one relationship, learners are shown the skills of language learning, which will enable them not only to learn what is most relevant to their needs, but more importantly to continue learning once the course is over.

Practical Immersion Activity

The last day of each phase is a fun day, which is comprised of a half-day’s visit to a place where the target language is spoken. During this immersion, learners undertake an assignment that gets them to interact with locals. Everyone then prepares and shares lunch with a family that speaks the target language. In Gauteng we usually opt for Soweto as the place to visit because of its cosmopolitan character. Click here to read our client testimonies.

In today’s diverse and highly demanding work environment, it is essential to be able to communicate in at least one of our African languages if one takes seriously the multilingual and multicultural reality of our country.