Eleven official languages seem daunting enough , but with multiple dialects and variations for each , there ’ s never really knowing whether someone truly understands what you ’ re saying . When you do some research on South Africa , you might find yourself thinking : “ Luckily English is one of their eleven official languages ”. But here South Africa throws you with another thrilling curveball called the South African accent . ‘ English ’ might not entirely be English as the rest of the world knows it . Depending on which part of the country you ’ re in , theses cultural and language barriers can either become more or less significant . However , getting used to an Afrikaans-speaking South African ’ s pronunciation alone , might take you the duration of your stay . And sometimes , even the locals can ’ t help much since they ’ re still struggling to understand it themselves . It takes some getting used to and it is definitely necessary to take a crash course in popular South Africanisms - which could help expatriates avoid or get out of sticky situations .