WINDHOEK- Karlien Visser and WP Oosthuizen, learners from Gobabis Gymnasium are winners of the 2018 Idiom Competition hosted by the ATKV (‘Afrikaanse Taal en Kultuur Vereniging’ – Afrikaans Language and Culture Association) and NBC’s Hartklop FM.

The competition saw the Gobabis Gymnasium team and that of Elnatan Private School, represented by twin sisters Elsa and Anri Visser, battle it out in a closely contested radio broadcast final held at the NBC’s Hartklop FM studio in Windhoek. Team Gobabis Gymnasium proved to be slightly better prepared than their opponents, resulting in them winning the trophy and cash prizes sponsored by Bank Windhoek while the runners-up received cash prizes as well.

Visser who has enjoyed the competition throughout her secondary education, broke down in tears of joy once she heard that her school were the victors for the day. The Grade 12 learner, who bid farewell to the competition as she embarks on further studies, says the ATKV Idiom Competition means a lot to her and that she is proud to have been a participant over the years.

The competition is now in its 14th year running with between 20 and 30 schools from across the country taking part. Learners from the competing schools challenged each other in various categories, which included completing Afrikaans idioms, forming new idioms with key words and a rapid fire section where the meaning of idioms were given. The aim of the competition is to promote the Afrikaans language and to familiarise school learners with Afrikaans expressions and idioms. There are more than 8 000 idioms and expressions in the Afrikaans language, which the learners had to memorise and use correctly during the competition. The ATKV Idiom Competition was started by University of Namibia lecturers Dr. Dolores Wolfgaardt and Kleintjie Muller. They saw the opportunity to keep the heritage of the Afrikaans language alive by introducing the competition for learners to the ATKV Windhoek branch.

Schools were allowed to enter the competition with a team of two learners per school, who would then challenge each other on a knock-out-round radio programme hosted by NBC’s Hartklop FM. The programme was broadcast every Wednesday afternoon and ran until mid-October.