Some students seem to find a course in Economics to be difficult and removed from their daily lives. The goal of this glossary is to assist students to obtain a better understanding of economics terms and concepts. This will enable them to succeed and deepen their insight into formulating and making informed choices on many issues. In Economics, students learn an approach to thinking that can be applied in campus life, in their careers and in everyday life. Economics terms and concepts used in the text are those that can be found in most introductory Economics textbooks. The text can be used in conjunction with any other text.

The end goal will be the emergence of an IsiXhosa dictionary of commercial and economic terms. From here, it will become possible not only to lecture in IsiXhosa, using the new terminology, but also initially to translate existing textbooks into the vernacular, although the ultimate goals will be the writing of such works by local academics. It is with the emergence of indigenous writing and research that a re-conceptualisation of economics teaching and ultimately, theory, can emerge.