2016 Cape Town Oktoberfest

LTC Team — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 07:23:26 +0000

Held annually in Munich, Germany, Oktoberfest is the biggest beer festival in the world, with more than 6 million people from around the globe attending the event each year. Luckily, although we may not be able to go to the festival in Germany, we have our very own Oktoberfest in Cape Town.

Oktoberfest Cape Town is sponsored by Windhoek and will be taking place at Hillcrest Quarry on Friday, 21 and Saturday, 22 October 2016. The wunderbar festival will give attendees the opportunity to sample some fine German beer, and even offers traditional food and garments. Activities such as Stamm-sägen (log-sawing) and Bierstemmen (beer lifting) will occur along with a few modern games, such as table tennis. All these activities are sure to make festival goers build up an appetite, and luckily the bash has all a hungry player needs, from bratwurst to giant pretzels. But let’s not forget the most important part of the event – the bier. Festbier, which is brewed especially for the event, will be available, along with a range of Namibia Breweries Limited creations. It will be a day of dancing, drinking, and traditional Oktoberfest fun.

History of Oktoberfest

On 12th October 1810, Crown Prince Ludwig, who later became King Ludwig I, married Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. Citizens of Munich were invited to be a part of the celebrations which took place on the fields in front of the city gates. The royals marked the close of the event with a horse race. This race was repeated the next year and became an annual event. This gave rise to Oktoberfest.

In 1811, the first Agricultural Show was a feature added to the annual horse race event, with the plan of promoting Bavarian agriculture. Although the horse races are no longer held today, the Agricultural show is still held every three years during Oktoberfest on the southern part of the grounds where the festival is held.

There wasn’t really a lot of amusements in the first few decades, but the small beer stands rapidly grew in number. In 1896, these stands were replaced by beer tents and halls. The rest of the festival grounds were taken up by a funfair.

Oktoberfest today

Today, Oktoberfest is the biggest festival in the world – with around 6 million visitors from around the globe – and is still held on the same site it was first held on in 1811. But besides the main Oktoberfest, there are a number of other (much smaller) Oktoberfest festivals held around the world – such as Oktoberfest Cape Town!

What’s special about Oktoberfest is the celebration – not just of beer – but of German culture. But festivals and beer isn’t the most beautiful thing about this culture – the language is. Though many people believe that German is a harsh sounding language, the opposite is true. It may not be as melodic as the Romance languages, but it does have its own kind of beauty – and is quite easy to learn. If you have been wanting to learn German in Cape Town – or are considering it now – you don’t need to look any further than the Language Teaching Centre (LTC). LTC is a language school which offers language classes in Cape Town. Learners get taught by highly qualified teachers in a nurturing and positive environment, be they from the area or from overseas. It is especially useful to foreign students, as LTC offers English courses in Cape Town that not only allow students to learn, but to also engage with classmates from different backgrounds and cultures. LTC meets all your language learning needs.

Languages of the Cape

LTC Team — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 13:16:26 +0000

There are few places on this Earth as beautiful as Cape Town is. Amazing weather, amazing beaches, and an exquisite mountain hugging the ocean, what more could you want?

And there’s more – while most countries have only one or perhaps two languages, Cape Town is home to a number of different languages, and thanks to all the foreigners living in the Cape, while walking down the street you will hear a multitude of foreign languages as well.

Because of the rich cultural history, Cape Town is now not only home to English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa but to a large Dutch, French, German and Portuguese community. Other nationalities, such as Asians, Italians and Russians have made Cape Town their home too. Now, in post-Apartheid South Africa, the democratic constitution recognises 11 official languages as part of South Africa’s cultural heritage. This decision was made to elevate and advance the indigenous tongues of the country that were previously suppressed. Today, the majority of South Africans – and Capetonians in general – are able to speak more than one language, and may switch between languages during a conversation.

However, English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa remain the most widely spoken languages in the Cape, Afrikaans being the most spoken home language in Cape Town, with more than 40% of residents speaking the language. English is also quite widely spoken, and Xhosa remains the main language of the local African population.

The English used by Capetonians is known as South African English, which is different from British or American English. In South African English, there are many Afrikaans influences, and you will come across many typical South African expressions. In Cape Town – and South Africa as a whole – traffic lights are known as “robots” and a barbeque is known as a “braai.” These are only two examples of the diverse and colourful expressions prevalent in the Cape.

Public schools – and most private schools – teach according to the South African curriculum, which means the students get taught in two languages, usually English and Afrikaans, one being a home language and the other a first additional language.

There are a number of private and international schools that teach according to the British, American, German or French curriculum and that offer other languages. This year, Mandarin was actually introduced into the South African school curriculum as an additional language.

It’s unfortunate that other foreign languages are not taught in most Capetonian schools, but luckily that’s where the Language Teaching centre comes in. The Language Teaching Centre is an international language school situated in Cape Town. The centre offers English and other internationally recognised foreign language training and certification in a positive learning environment. The teachers at the Language Teaching Centre are highly qualified native speakers of the languages that they teach and their experience allows them to teach students of many different nationalities, backgrounds and languages in a nurturing and positive educational setting. The Language Teaching centre is all you need if you want to become fluent in another language.

German – Language Teaching Centre | LTC

2016 Cape Town Oktoberfest

History of Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest today

Languages of the Cape