UCT's plans to diversify residences received a boost when scores of students completed the basic Xhosa communication skills course, Masithethe isiXhosa (Let's speak Xhosa).

This has given them an opportunity to learn more about the Xhosa culture, noted Associate Professor Mbulungeni Madiba, co-ordinator of the Multilinguism Education Project at the Centre for Higher Education Development.

"If you speak to a people in a language that is not their mother tongue, you are only speaking to their heads. But if you speak in their language, you are talking to their hearts and souls," Madiba explained to the 32 students who received their certificates on 22 October.