93 Growing up, Noah fits in fully with neither the whites, nor the blacks. But he develops a strategy to ensure that he is accepted by the black community to which he wants to belong. This is evident at playtime in his new school. I stood there awkwardly by myself in this no-man’s-land in the middle of the playground. Luckily, I was rescued by the Indian kid from my class named Theesan Pillay. Theesan was one of the few Indian kids in school, so he’d noticed me, another obvious outsider, right away. He ran over to introduce himself. “Hello, fellow anomaly! You’re in my class. Who are you? What’s your story?” We started talking and hit it off. He took me under his wing, the Artful Dodger to my bewildered Oliver. Through our conversation it came up that I spoke several African languages, and Theesan thought a colored kid speaking black languages was the most amazing trick. He brought me over to a group of black kids. “Say something,” he told them, “and he’ll show you he understands you.” One kid said something in Zulu, and I replied to him in Zulu. Everyone cheered. Another kid said something in Xhosa, and I replied to him in Xhosa. Everyone cheered. For the rest of recess Theesan took me around to different black kids on the playground. “Show them your trick. Do your language thing.” The black kids were fascinated. In South Africa back then, it wasn’t common to find a white person or a colored person who spoke African languages; during apartheid white people were always taught that those languages were beneath them. So the fact that I did speak African languages immediately endeared me to the black kids. “How come you speak our languages?” they asked. “Because I’m black,” I said, “like you.” “You’re not black.” “Yes, I am.” “No, you’re not. Have you seen yourself?” They were confused at first. Because of my color, they thought I was a colored person, but speaking the same languages meant that I belonged to their tribe. It just took them a moment to figure it out. It took me a moment, too. Now discuss the following questions in small groups. 1 Why does Trevor Noah say he was ‘born a crime’? 2 Why did his mother have to ‘photobomb’ pictures to be photographed with her son? How do you think this affected her and Trevor? 3 Why does Noah liken himself to a ‘bag of weed’? 4 What can you work out about Trevor’s mother from what she does and says? 5 How does Trevor become accepted by his schoolmates? Do you think it’s true that people accept you more easily if you speak their language? 6 How does Noah create humour in this extract? b Expand your vocabulary: Discrimination against social groups – part 2 Add the highlighted expressions from above to your collection of topic vocabulary. Make sure you know what they mean. Now write five sentences describing the South Africa Trevor Noah lived in during apartheid. In each, use at least two of the expressions in green. LANGUAGE 13 a b Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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