The South African Centre for Digital Languages Resources (SADiLaR) celebrated isiZulu as an official language of South Africa during the whole of February. As part of the celebrations, our isiZulu researcher, Ms Rooweither Mabuya, joined a non-profit organisation, Legacy Creators, to conduct school visits in KwaZulu-Natal. The purpose of the visits was to create awareness of various fields of study at different universities. Rooweither invited students from Durban University of Technology, Mangosuthu University of Technology and the University of KwaZulu-Natal to give presentations and share their experiences in their respective study fields.
The visits were aimed at Gr. 11 and Gr. 12 learners of Senzakahle High School on the 27th of February and Zibukezulu High School on the 28th of February, to assist them in making an informed decision when choosing their career path. Rooweither did a presentation about her journey on becoming an isiZulu researcher at SADiLaR. She started the presentation speaking about how she ended up studying linguistics and then took it to the next level by discussing computational linguistics and the need for specialists in South Africa. “Learners do not always know about the various career paths that are available when you study languages. I want to share my knowledge and experience with learners, to show them what they can do when they study languages,” states Rooweither. Her hope is that one day isiZulu will become a language of research, teaching and learning.
