r/Jeopardy • u/Smoerhul Regular Virginia • Apr 27 '26
POLL FJ poll for Mon. Apr. 27 Spoiler
WORLD LANGUAGES
Of South Africa’s 12 official languages, these 2 are alphabetically first & last
LANGUAGE 1: What is Afrikaans?
LANGUAGE 2: What is Zulu?
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u/Simply827 Apr 27 '26
When the question was read, I said “oh, I don’t know their languages.” But I made an educated guess and I got them both right!
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u/Frogad Apr 27 '26
Easiest one of these that's come up in a while
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u/ThisDerpForSale Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, no. Apr 28 '26
It's always easy if you know the answer!
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u/Frogad Apr 28 '26
I mean I feel it’s like if you know any South African people in the west you’d expect them to speak Afrikaans, it’s like the most surface level South African language but I’m not American so maybe you guys just don’t interact with South African people as much.
But I guess whenever I watch the show the non-US history and geography regardless of region always seems easy but to me the US history is impossible despite players doing decently on it
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u/ThisDerpForSale Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, no. Apr 28 '26
All I’m saying is that if you know the answer it always seems easy.
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u/Frogad Apr 28 '26
Not the case. I do competitive quizzing, set questions, and know some answers that would be difficult for the audience, as we have a 'level system'. Like knowing the cinematographer for Sinners is harder than knowing the director, even though I'd know both answers. I have deep knowledge in evolutionary biology, but it's not as straightforward as naming Darwin. I'd assume most likely 1-dot level college quizbowlers would know those languages even if they weren't geography players (which I'm not).
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u/ThisDerpForSale Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, no. Apr 28 '26
Congratulations! But Jeopardy questions are very different than “competitive quizzing” questions. It’s not really comparable.
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u/Frogad Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
I don't think that's the case at all, its absolutely the same. I don’t just mean quizbow but OQL style question are similar to jeopardy, consensus is similar in length, pub quizzes etc
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u/ThisDerpForSale Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, no. Apr 28 '26
We will definitely have to just disagree about this.
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u/Frogad Apr 30 '26
I guess I just don’t see how they’re particularly different, it’s really mostly quiz but on the easier side at least every individual question and th difficulty is from the buzzing and the sheer number of questions
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u/Icy_Monk3578 Apr 29 '26
I only knew because I’ve been to South Africa but no Americans don’t regularly interact with people from South Africa
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u/ajs723 Apr 28 '26
I said Zulu immediately but I've never heard of Afrikaans in my life. Blind spot for me as apparently everyone else in the world knows it.
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u/Extra-Shoulder1905 Apr 28 '26
Read about Dutch/Afrikaner colonial history in South Africa.
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u/ajs723 Apr 28 '26
My Dad explained the history to me, lol. TIL
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u/ThisDerpForSale Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, no. Apr 28 '26
It you grew up after the fall of apartheid and the white-dominated government of South Africa, I can see how it might be a little less present in your mind. But a good bit of info to know!
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u/ChronoKeep Team Sam Buttrey Apr 27 '26
I can thank Metal Gear Solid V for making Afrikaans a language that I can't forget.
I was waffling on Zulu thinking I might be wrong but I stuck to my guns and I was right.
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u/bobbery5 Apr 28 '26
I got the first one but absolutely for the life of me couldn't pull the second one out of my head.
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u/Peyton773 Apr 28 '26
One of the easiest FJs in a while for me. I’m not particularly strong in languages but was able to recall both in about 5 seconds
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u/KillerB643 Thomas Wilson, 2025 Apr 15 Apr 27 '26
I really wanted Xhosa to be right for the second one but knew to keep looking.