His literary and linguistic training consisted in a BA Degree (1934), followed by a Master's thesis, submitted to the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 1942, entitled "Some features of the phonetic and grammatical structure of Baca" (Bhaca), which was an important early contribution to the study of non-standard Nguni languages, specifically, of a Tekela Nguni language.

While teaching in Kroonstad (in the then Orange Free State Province) between 1934 and 1944 Jordan mastered Sotho, became president of the African Teachers' Association, and started his writing career with the publication of poetry in the newspaper Imvo Zabantsundu.

He also started work on his classic Xhosa novel, Ingqumbo Yeminyanya (1940), later translated by the author and his wife, Phyllis Ntantala-Jordan, into English as The Wrath of the Ancestors (1980).

Decades later he still testified to the enormous influence Jordan had on those students, and the inspiring and vital knowledge he imparted about Xhosa culture and language.

Similarly, Carol Eastman[1] recounted, in Johannesburg, at the "Sociolinguistics in Africa" conference organised by Bob Herbert, her inspiration for African culture and language instilled by Jordan when he taught her Xhosa at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the 1960s.