South Africa’s Muppets Sing Out in a Rainbow of Languages

Takalani Sesame Muppet Zikwe laughs with children in South Africa.

While most of the countries producing a localized version of Sesame Street have only one or two official languages to consider, South Africa has a whopping eleven official tongues. To accommodate these tongues and ensure that all children are provided with learning opportunities in their dominant language, the South African government has a policy in place ensuring multilingual education. Takalani Sesame embraced this policy with the launch of its fourth season in August 2007, introducing an “applied language” approach that aimed to create a supportive learning environment for every South African child. It’s a bold move – and a first in South African television history.

“Research showed that children would tune out a language they didn’t understand, so it became counterproductive,” explains Seeta Pai, Sesame Workshop’s director of international research.

The applied language approach changed all that. Each episode of Takalani Sesame is now produced in nine languages. The broadcaster rotates the languages, dedicating one day a week to each. The fourth and fifth seasons of the show featured five focal languages each; in season four, the languages included English (Mondays), seTswana (Tuesdays), tshiVenda (Wednesdays), isiZulu (Thursdays), and sePedi (Fridays). Season five featured isiXhosa, xiTsonga, seSotho, Afrikaans, and English.

Encouraging learning in a child’s mother tongue

Research suggests that the more opportunity children have to learn in their mother tongue, the easier it is for them make connections between what they learn and what they experience in their daily lives. The applied language approach provides a naturally supportive environment for children to link learning and experience, and draw from their own experiences to mediate new knowledge.

Pai believes that the new language strategy is better suited to a child’s learning ability.

“Educationally, it is sound to give children a cognitive and language foundation in their native tongue,” she says.

Showcasing South Africa’s linguistic diversity

While the show primarily features one language per broadcast, Takalani Sesame’s language policy aims to be inclusive of other languages wherever possible. An episode produced in one language, therefore, will occasionally introduce a second language in the form of greetings, poems, or songs. This allows Takalani Sesame to showcase the diversity of South Africa and emphasize the need for children to understand themselves in relation to others.

Sesame Workshop’s Takalani Sesame producer Naila Farouky is proud of the result. “It’s the first time ever on South African television that the issue of having 11 official languages has been addressed in a dedicated way,” she says.

Takalani Sesame was the first series in South Africa to be produced in several languages without dubbing and subtitling, which introduced a new set of challenges. To accommodate all these languages, the Muppeteers had to learn a set of languages that they didn’t normally speak. The Takalani team brought language coaches on to the set to smooth the language difficulties and prevent inadvertent mistakes.

 “If you pronounce something wrong, it has cultural nuances. It could change the entire meaning of the word,” Farouky explains.

The new language strategy also extends to radio programming, with the series broadcasting in the languages relevant to each region.

Nine languages might sound like a mouthful for Takalani Sesame’s Muppets, but it’s a linguistic challenge that everyone involved is excited to take on.