CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW
2.8.6 Indigenous Languages and Formal Settings such as Banks
The use of African languages in formal settings such as banks is also important. It is imperative that the client should understand the teller and vice versa. The researcher focuses on banks as financial institutions which should also consider the use of indigenous languages in their everyday activities. Badenhorst (2004:46) mentions that:
A bank is a company that has a license to receive deposits and conduct financial transactions on behalf of its clients. The bank lends money to borrowers whose applications have been approved. Anyone is entitled to lend money, but one has to be registered by the Registrar of Banks to take deposits and handle transactions.
Capricorn and Mopani are districts which have several towns that have many banks: NedBank, Amalgamated Bank of South Africa (ABSA), Capitec Bank, Standard Bank, and First National
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Bank (FNB). All these banks use English as their means of communication, therefore which makes it difficult for many customers to inquire about their accounts because they understand or know little English or no English at all. Banks should accommodate their customers by appointing employees who are capable of speaking the language of the customer. All documentation used in these banks is in English: letters, deposit slips, withdrawal slips and bank statements. The Constitution of South Africa (1996) stipulates that all South African citizens have the right to information and knowledge in their mother tongue, but in the Capricorn and Mopani Districts people are still denied access to information in their language.
Most of the notices in Capricorn and Mopani Districts are written in English only and for someone who cannot read and understand this language, it remains a problem. Notices to remind pensioners about their grant payment dates are written in English. The notices become meaningless since they do not accommodate the relevant people whom they are meant for.
Moreover, according to Sapir (1921) ‘language as a means of communication, sharing ideas, and emotions using a common language’, but in many places in South Africa, this is not the case. Therefore, in Capricorn and Mopani Districts, communication remains a challenge.
It is imperative for a company to be sensitive to ethnicity and indigenous use of languages when catering for a diverse customer base. Marketers and bank personnel need to pay attention to effective communication with their customers, ushering in a new focus of service delivery in consumerism. Banks should use plain, comprehensible language which accommodate speakers of all indigenous languages (Gage-Lofgren, 2014:14).
Misunderstanding of the language of communication to inform customers about certain aspects leads to consumers being misled, resulting in ‘unclarity confusion’ (Leek & Kun, 2006:185). The field of consumer behaviour and consumer responses has received renewed interest in responsible, green consumer orientation. Satisfying the customers’ needs is a novel topic to be investigated (Ertz, 2016:1). Investigating people’s responses to the medium of communication for ethical reasons can, consequently be regarded as a new focal area in the field of consumerism.
62 2.8.7 The Use of English in Tanzania
Kishe (2004) notes the case of Kiswahili in Tanzania and has this to say: ‘If Kiswahili is officially recognised as a medium of communication at the regional level, it will become an important integrating force at the upper horizontal level, thus uniting the élites from the respective countries’. Kishe notes that if Kiswahili is adopted as a working language, it will act as a point of contact between the government and the people who are the target of development, thus providing a means of sharing information and the exchange of ideas. He emphasises the importance of acknowledging minority languages to improve understanding also when doing business. Communication by the use of foreign languages such as English by Africans is of a poor quality. Africa has lost its connection with its indigenous languages in that these languages are often treated as foreign on the continent of their origin. Africans must find better ways of uplifting the status of African indigenous languages. Language embraces the entire scope of people’s way of life. Salawu (2010:66) states that while culture is reflected in the socio-politico-economic system of a people it is by far more predominantly reflected in a people’s mode of communication. This refers to language it is a single most characteristic element of a people’s culture. The researcher notes that language plays an important role in culture in its entirety.
Salawu (2010:68) asserts that Africans who are literate in the European languages should also use African languages. African languages are there to be used by all proudly African language speaking Africans (those who take pride in their culture), and these languages should be used alongside Western European languages.
Lupogo (2014:29) found in his study that it is time for the government to adopt Kiswahili in Tanzania as Language of Instruction in secondary schools and tertiary institutions because more than 90% of Tanzanians are familiar with Kiswahili. Moreover, all local services from various offices, trading centres are done in Kiswahili throughout the country (Lupogo, 2014:28).
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He further suggests that Kiswahili as a language should be mostly used in Tanzania. This is because many of the customers that are served by the municipality are from outside and they are much more familiar with Swahili as a language, rather than English.
English should also be used but only where necessary. The study points out that this does not mean English should totally be phased out, but should be used as a subject which would be taught by English professional teachers who would enable a student to understand proper English, which is different from the current situation in which students are expected to learn English through using it as a language of instruction taught by those who do not dispose of sufficient knowledge of English grammar (Lupogo, 2014:35).