Scandal! actor James Sithole is a linguist of note and has used his remarkable talent and ability to speak 10 South African languages to his great advantage.
Born in Kwa-Ndebele, Mpumalanga, he says while he was in Grade 1, he aspired to pursue a career as a policeman or soldier, however, while doing his matric, he met his peers from a youth development group whose duty was to engage the local youth in extramural
activities. He jumped at the opportunity.
Sithole, who plays the villain Mdala on the etv soapie, says his love for languages started at a very young age. His mother is muVenda and father is muTsonga, and he says in the family they couldn’t choose to speak either of the two languages, so they opted for Sepedi as their central language.
“I joined the youth development group as an athlete. I wanted to run, doing distances like the 100 and 200 meters and it so happened that one day our athletics instructor was not there, so I went to the acting and music class. That is when I fell in love with acting.
“I immediately knew that’s where I wanted to be.”
Upon completing matric, Sithole went to study performing arts at the youth in Trust at the South African State Theatre in Pretoria.
In a bid to perfect his translating skills, he studied language practice as he had wanted to be a translator at some point in his life.
“I did language practice because I wanted to be an interpreter, it was like something I could fall back on. I used to interpret at church, so that’s the reason I wanted to learn to speak many languages. I can safely say I know all the official languages, excluding Afrikaans, and I am currently learning Swahili and sign language.”
As an actor, Sithole believes that when you are able to speak many languages you have money in your pocket because it is easy to conduct business through language. “We have seen some shows are specific on the language that must be spoken and if you know all languages you can get any job you want.”
His character Mdala is back in a big way on Scandal!, fighting for what rightfully belongs to him.
Also Read: Role on Scandal! mimics reality for Makhosazana Ndlovu
For the latest entertainment news from Sunday World, click here.
Or read the latest from Shwashwi here.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
