Language Landscape of Suriname

Video Transcript

SME 1: "You hear a lot of English, believe it or not. Most people speak English. That was surprising. I had no problem communicating when I was there, to anybody. Stores, markets, you can pretty much can just speak directly in English [and] you get what you need."

SME 2: "They speak their own language, which goes [by] whatever name you wanna... "Sranan Tongo." And that is it's own thing. And when you hear that, then it's nothing like Dutch. And then you can really tell that it's a very African Caribbean thing. Of course the words are a combination of all kinds of sounds, Spanish, English, French, whatever."

In this video, a retired Air Force master sergeant and native Surinamese explain the language landscape.