Battle of the languages!

After countless hours of studying and parrot style reciting, after making a fool of myself in front of friends attempting to make tea, after going to bed in the wee hours and then waking up to jog off the stress at 7am, after putting toothpaste on countless stress pimples and after picturing my lecturers as naked individuals sitting on the toilet in an attempt to lower their god-like status I have finally completed my isiXhosa oral. And boy does it feel fantastic! As stated in a previous post, “Let’s talk language”, isiXhosa is the boxing world champion in my life that knocks me out in every fight. Slowly but surely the year has drawn to a close with many black eyes and broken ribs and just when I thought it could not get worse, the referee announced that another match had been scheduled: the dreaded oral. Tuesday the 14th of October at 16:10 loomed menacingly closer everyday and dampened my mood. I had failed miserably in the last fight and being the type of person who hates pursuing something that I cannot do brilliantly, I really thought about throwing in the towel. But now the light shines brightly again and I am happily holding onto my towel, that is for once covered in the isiXhosa champion or should I say ex-champions blood. Ok I admit that I didn’t transform into a first language isiXhosa speaker during the oral but I could actually answer most of what was asked, with a lot of nudging and repeated questions. But I have completed my long fight with isiXhosa and look forward to knocking its lights out in exams!