20 Languages jobs in South Africa

We are seeking an experienced and visionary African Languages Lead. This is a role for someone deeply committed to advancing access to high-quality, culturally relevant educational materials in African home languages. The successful candidate will guide a team of language specialist, including practitioners, editors, translators, versioners, and quality assurers and ensure the development of linguistically sound and pedagogically effective resources for the Foundation Phase.

Strategic Leadership

• Provide strategic direction and oversight for the African languages.
• Develop and manage workflows for authoring, versioning, and quality assurance processes.
• Lead planning, staffing, and execution of projects in collaboration with cross-functional

Quality Assurance and Oversight

• Ensure linguistic accuracy, consistency, and cultural appropriateness across all language materials.
• Oversee terminology development, orthographic standardisation, and alignment with educational frameworks.
• Establish and maintain quality standards, style guides, glossaries, and spelling conventions.

Team Management and Capacity Building

• Recruit, manage, and support a pool of African home language specialists.
• Facilitate training, mentorship, and professional development opportunities for team members.
• Promote collaboration and knowledge sharing within the unit and with other departments.

Content Development and Review

• Supervise and support the development and refinement of Foundation Phase literacy and life skills content.
• Guide the origination of Phonics programmes tailored to language-specific phonics sequences.
• Provide final reviews and sign-off for key deliverables in multiple African home languages.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborate with government departments, educational institutions, and other partners.
• Represent the unit in forums, conferences, and consultations on language policy and education

• Relevant (Masters) degree in Education
• Minimum 5-10 years' experience at a similar level
• Early grade reading with considerable experience working in teacher development and teaching early grade reading
• We are especially interested in candidates with experience in one or more ot the following African languages:IsiZulu,isiXhosa,Sepedi,Sesotho,Setswana, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Siswati, Ndebele.
• Proven leadership experienceineducation,linguistics,publishing, or language development
• Extensive knowledge and experience in at least one African language listed below, with fluency in English
• Strong understanding of language structure, orthography, grammar, and cultural context
• Demonstrated experience in versioning and editing of educational materials
• Proven ability to work under pressure and to strict deadlines
• Familiarity with the South African education landscape and curriculum requirements
• Excellent communication, project management, and organisational skills
• Experience with capacity building or mentoring in multilingual education settings
• Background in early literacy or foundational learning materials

• An interest in and alignment to Funda Wande's vision and values
• Be extremely organized; but be able to multi-task simultaneously
• Committed to improving processes and systems
• Works well under pressure and with changing deliverables
• Tolerate ambiguity and change in a rapidly growing organisation
• Confident, proactive, self-reliant, and performance-orientated
• Great team player
• High degree of emotional intelligence

Advert reference: uj_

Advert status: Online

Apply by: 31 October 2025

Position Summary

Industry: Education & Training

Job category: Education and Training

Campus: Auckland Park Kingsway Campus

Contract: Permanent

Remuneration: Market Related

EE position: EE

Level: Skilled

Introduction

The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is a vibrant and cosmopolitan institution, guided by its bold UJ Strategy 2035, which emphasises Societal Impact and Sustainability, Global Footprint and Partnerships, and Technology for the Future. Committed to transformative change, UJ's mission is "To transform and serve humanity through innovation and the collective and collaborative pursuit of knowledge." The University is guided by the vision of building "An international university of choice, anchored in Africa and the global south, dynamically shaping a sustainable future".

Job description

"Please note that the University is obligated, in terms of recent amendments to the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act 2021 (Act 13 of 2021), to assess all prospective employees (including applicants) against the National Register for Sex Offenders (NRSO). The outcome of such an assessment may have an impact upon possible employment with the University.

For more information, please review the following link: Justice/Criminal/NRSO

Multilingual Language Services Office

We are seeking a meticulous and experienced Language Specialist (IsiZulu) to ensure that the University's written content is error-free and aligned with the brand's professional and academic environment. A keen eye for detail and strong proficiency in grammar, punctuation, and style guidelines will be essential to elevate the quality of all UJ official publications. The ideal candidate will possess a strong background in editing, with a deep understanding of various editing processes and techniques. We expect you to handle multiple projects simultaneously, maintain tight deadlines, have a good turnaround time, work well under pressure, and foster a collaborative atmosphere. If you are passionate about language, enjoy refining written content, and have a keen eye for detail, we invite you to apply for the IsiZulu Language Specialist position, where you can impact our content significantly and contribute to our overarching mission of communication excellence.

Responsibilities:

• Edit and proofread a wide range of IsiZulu written content, ensuring clarity, accuracy, and adherence to style guidelines.
• Translate various documents from English into IsiZulu.
• Collaborate with writers to improve the overall quality of content and provide constructive feedback.
• Check content for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors, making necessary corrections.
• Ensure consistency in formatting.
• Ensure flow, coherence, and overall readability of documents, suggesting improvements where necessary.
• Ensure content aligns with the academic brand and messaging strategy, maintaining consistency across platforms.
• Manage multiple editing projects simultaneously, prioritising tasks to meet tight deadlines without sacrificing quality.
• Stay updated with industry trends and best practices in copy editing, incorporating new techniques to enhance content quality.
• Update and manage the IsiZulu house style guide as required and ensure implementation throughout the University.
• Assist with the organisation of departmental events.
• Implement UJ Language Policy and Language Implementation Plan.
• Apply UJ policies and regulations when editing and translating documents.

Minimum requirements

• Bachelor's degree (NQF 7) in IsiZulu and Applied Linguistics, Communications, Journalism, or a related field.
• 3 years' of experience in copy-editing, translating, language planning, etc. or similar environment.
• 3 years' of proven work experience as a language practitioner or in a language-related field.
• Proven knowledge of IsiZulu copy editing in a similar role, with a strong portfolio of edited work.
• Knowledge and proficiency in MS Office core applications: Word for word processing, Excel for spreadsheets, PowerPoint for presentations, and Outlook for email and calendar management.

Competencies and Behavioural Attributes:

• Excellent knowledge of the IsiZulu language, including grammar, spelling, syntax, punctuation and style guidelines
• Strong attention to detail, with the ability to spot errors and inconsistencies in content and formatting
• Effective communication skills, both written and verbal, to liaise with team members and writers
• Exceptional organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple projects under tight deadlines
• Good time-management skills
• Ability to work independently but also in a team
• Copy editing, translating, and language planning
• Highly organised and detail-oriented
• Time management skills
• Proficient in Microsoft Office, Track Changes, Adobe Acrobat and OneDrive

Recommendations:

• Professional body membership (such as Professional Editors' Guild (PEG), South African Translators' Institute (SATI), Southern African Linguistics and Applied Linguistics Society (SALALS)) would be an advantage.
• Understanding university policies and practices concerning the discipline would be an advantage.
• An Honours or Master's degree in IsiZulu, Applied Linguistics, Communications or a related field.
• Willingness to offer guest lectures in the Department of African Languages.

Enquiries:

Enquiries regarding the job content: Prof Rockie Sibanda at Tel:

Enquiries regarding remuneration & benefits: Ms Lungisa Zihlangu (HCM Business Partner) at Tel:

Your application, comprising of a detailed Curriculum Vitae as well as the names and full contact details (including telephone numbers and e-mail addresses) of at least three traceable and credible referees must be uploaded before or on the closing date of the advertised post. Please also attach the following: a copy of your highest academic qualification, proof of registration with professional bodies you might belong to and if applying for an academic position, a list of accredited research output and/ or a portfolio of your creative output.

If you require technical support / assistance on the UJ e-recruitment website, please contact our service provider PNET on the following contact details: / or email

Candidates may be subjected to appropriate psychometric testing and other selection instruments.

In conjunction to merit on the basis of qualifications, experience and proven achievements the University of Johannesburg is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for persons with disabilities and those individuals from the historically disadvantaged groups. As necessitated by operational requirements the University reserves the right not to make an appointment to positions advertised. If you have not received a response from the University within 8 weeks of the closing date, you should assume that your application has been unsuccessful.

Please note that the University is obligated, in terms of recent amendments to the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act 2021 (Act 13 of 2021), to assess all prospective employees (including applicants) against the National Register for Sex Offenders (NRSO). The outcome of such an assessment may have an impact upon possible employment with the University.

Are you an Arabic (Levantine) language specialist eager to shape the future of AI? Large-scale language models are evolving from clever chatbots into powerful tools for communication, education, and cultural understanding. With high-quality training data, tomorrow's AI can accurately capture Levantine Arabic vocabulary, dialects, grammar, idiomatic expressions, and cultural context—helping preserve linguistic heritage and support authentic interactions. That training data begins with you—we need your expertise to help power the next generation of AI.

We're looking for Arabic (Levantine) language specialists who live and breathe phonetics, morphology, syntax, regional dialects, colloquial expressions, and cultural references. You'll challenge advanced language models on topics like contextual interpretation, dialectical distinctions, semantic accuracy, and cultural nuance—documenting every failure mode so we can harden model reasoning.

On a typical day, you will converse with the model in Levantine Arabic across a wide range of topics, verify linguistic accuracy and cultural relevance, capture reproducible error traces, and suggest improvements to our prompt engineering and evaluation metrics.

A degree in Linguistics, Middle Eastern Studies, Translation, or a related field is ideal; professional experience in teaching, translation, language documentation, or community work signals fit. Clear, metacognitive communication—"showing your work"—is essential.

Ready to turn your Arabic (Levantine) expertise into the knowledge base for tomorrow's AI? Apply today and start teaching the model that will teach the world.

We offer a pay range of $8-to-$65 per hour, with the exact rate determined after evaluating your experience, expertise, and geographic location. Final offer amounts may vary from the pay range listed above. As a contractor you'll supply a secure computer and high-speed internet; company-sponsored benefits such as health insurance and PTO do not apply.

Job title: Arabic (Levantine) Language Specialist - AI Trainer

Employment type: Contract

Workplace type: Remote

Seniority level: Mid-Senior Level

Are you fluent in Afrikaans, English, and at least one additional language, and eager to apply your linguistic expertise to the future of AI? Large-scale language models are transforming how people communicate, learn, and access information across cultures. With high-quality multilingual training data, tomorrow's AI can better serve global communities with accuracy, nuance, and inclusivity. That training data begins with you.

We're looking for an Afrikaans Trilingual Language Specialist who can bring deep linguistic knowledge, cultural awareness, and multilingual proficiency to AI training. You'll work with cutting-edge AI tools to evaluate, annotate, and refine model outputs in Afrikaans, English, and your third language, helping improve cross-lingual reasoning, translation quality, and naturalness.

On a typical day, you will review AI-generated text for grammatical accuracy, idiomatic expression, and cultural appropriateness; annotate and correct linguistic errors; assess multilingual translations for clarity and fidelity; and collaborate with our team to strengthen evaluation protocols and language-specific guidelines.

Fluency in Afrikaans and English, plus proficiency in at least one additional language, is required. Prior experience in translation, linguistics, content evaluation, or AI training is strongly preferred. Clear communication skills, attention to detail, and the ability to articulate linguistic nuances across languages are essential.

Ready to apply your multilingual expertise to shape the AI of tomorrow? Apply today and help build tools that will empower communication for people worldwide.

We offer a pay range of $6 to $65 per hour, with the exact rate determined after evaluating your experience, expertise, and geographic location. Final offer amounts may vary from the pay range listed above. As a contractor you'll supply a secure computer and reliable internet connection; company-sponsored benefits such as health insurance and PTO do not apply.

Job title: Afrikaans Trilingual Language Specialist – AI Trainer

Employment type: Contract

Workplace type: Remote

Seniority level: Mid-Senior

Minimum Requirements
Minimum Education:
Bachelor's degree in foreign language training

ICAO English Language Proficiency (ELP) Assessment: Aviation English Rater course

Master's degree in English Language Teaching will be an advantage

Accredited by the South African Civil Aviation Authority

Minimum Experience
Minimum of three years' experience delivering Aviation English Language training to Air Traffic Controllers, Pilots and other licensed personnel under the ICAO annexure 1.

Experience in delivering Aviation English Language training to local and international non-English speaking clients

Radiotelephony and aviation familiarisation (through aviation English apprenticeship or experience)

Competence in Microsoft Office applications.

Good command of the English language.

Our client seeks a dynamic, innovative and experienced Senior College AFRIKAANS teacher to start in January 2026.

REQUIREMENTS:

Relevant Degree.

2-5 years Practical Teaching Experience in the Afrikaans curriculum- IEB

Knowledge and/or experience in CIE (Cambridge) will be an advantage.

SACE registered

Computer and digital proficiency required.

Willingness to support the Christian ethos of the school.

Job description:

Cyber Bear Education is looking for a dedicated ESL teacher to provide 1-on-1 or small group online English lessons for students in Asia.

Interested applicants, please send your
resume
and
a
short self-introduction or teaching demo
,
and
your availability
to or

Qualifications:

• TEFL, TESOL, or TESL certification
• Native English speaker or at least proven C1 level proficiency
• Strong internet connection, reliable headset, and professional teaching environment
• Responsible, punctual, and student-focused
• Experience in Lesson Planning and Teaching preferred
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Bachelor's degree in any field is preferred

What We Offer:

• $6–8 USD base rate per hour
• Bonuses for student sign-ups and student renewals
• Teaching materials and structured support
• Flexible part-time scheduling with potential to grow into more hours

Responsibilities:

• Teach mainly 1-on-1 lessons online ranging from 25 minutes to 1 hour
• Conduct short trial lessons (15 minutes) with potential students (bonuses for conversions)
• Maintain clear and timely communication with our team
• Ensure professionalism in every class

Interested applicants, please send your resume and a short self-introduction or teaching demo,
and your availability
to:

or

We are currently hiring an English Language Teacher Trainer - ELT Trainer for our client based in India.

Description

This role would essentially require the candidate to travel to various locations within India, the Middle East, Thailand and Sri Lanka as these are where clients and headquarters are based. The applicant would be required to train staff and students in these locations where necessary.

Requirements

• The applicant needs to be a proficient English speaker and have experience teaching IELTS, CELTA and DELTA.
• The applicant need to be comfortable relocating to either India or the Middle East ( Preference will be given to applicants in these areas already )
• The applicant needs to be driven, motivated and enthusiastic.
• The applicant will be moving to different locations to conduct their duties approximately 12-14 days per month, the remainder of the work will be remote work.
• This applicant would be in a senior position so they would need to be comfortable taking initiative on tasks required to be completed as well.
• A candidate with a degree and relevant experience will be given preference

Job details :

You will be working for a rapidly scaling English Tutoring Brand who has clients in the locations listed and more.

• Travel costs between countries for work is covered by the company.
• A general idea of the pay scale : 1500 GBP upwards depending on the candidate

Should you feel you meet the criteria and are keen for a change of scenery then feel free to apply

The ADvTECH Schools Division leads the private sector in the field of education, contributing meaningfully towards the sustainable development of human capacity in South Africa

Duties required:

• To be responsible for all duties as required of an academic educator;
• Commitment to subject-related activities;
• Lead a classroom first by example of conduct and then by instructing learners through teaching excellently;
• Incorporating the school's values into daily teaching;
• Total commitment to extra-mural activities of the school.

Competencies/Skills/Requirements:

• Excellent interpersonal skills with colleagues, students and parents;
• Energetic, self-motivated and able to use own initiative;
• Enthusiastic, assertive and flexible;
• Good organisational and administrative skills;
• An open and creative outlook to education;
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with parents, staff and learners and willingness to engage with learners and their families on a personal level to help children in the best way possible;
• Must be a team player;
• Computer literacy is imperative;
• IEB experience is advantageous
• SACE registration.

Qualifications:

• Minimum requirement is a recognised Degree and/or a 4-year professional Teaching Qualification.

Experience:

• Minimum of 4 years' teaching experience in the same and/or similar type of position and environment.