BA TURANCI (I DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH): PROMOTE YOUR LANGUAGE

I remembered when i was in secondary school at Ijebu -Ife Community Grammar School, our school Principal then Mr. Segun Sosanya of blessed memory made English language a compulsory means of communication, speaking Yoruba among the pupils was an offence! Our mother-tongue language, Yoruba was referred to ‘vernacular’.

Later in life, i am surprise to know that majority of the most advanced countries in the world use their native language as a mode of communication both in their schools and offices. Countries such as Belgium uses Nederland and French ,Germany use their German, Netherlands use Dutch, France use their French, China use Mandarin, Japan also use their own native language with pride! The question that i wish to ask is, why did we relegate our own language to the back-ground?

 The write-up below is an observation by my friend, Dabi Debo Kayinsola, when he wrote thus:  ‘I am very ashamed that some Nigerians do not understand their own language, or are not very fluent as they should be, because they think learning to speak good English makes them a better or civilized person.

The English man has done a really great job spreading his language across the entire world, through whatever means, and it is now a global standard for communication. Don't you think you should try and promote your own language, instead of forgetting it and acting all "English"?

English speaking countries speak well because it’s their language... Get them to speak Dutch or French and you'd see how poor they are in languages too.

We all know it is a good and respectful thing to be able to speak other languages, other than yours, fluently. But do you think Nigerians and other people have to take it upon themselves to master a language (English) that is not theirs, before you can think less of them?

I know for a fact that any typical English man or woman with the exception of some of their frivolous teenagers, will understand and will never laugh or think less of anybody who tries but speaks English incorrectly, knowing full well that English is not the person's native language.

You not being able to speak English fluently don’t make you an illiterate; it means you just haven't learnt how to be fluent.

 My Chinese teacher cannot speak English fluently but he is a brilliant lecturer in a respectable university, and he has a Doctorate degree. So does someone of his status seem or sound like an illiterate to you?

I think we should rather try to always be ourselves and never be ashamed of who we are regardless of what other people may think of us. And for as long as we know that there is something wrong amongst us, then we have the tendency to be better people with time. am proud to be a Yoruba man, having fluency in several other languages doesn't make me relegate  my mother tongue.

We Africans,(Especially Nigerians) need to wake up and start appreciating our own things because "what you don’t have, you can't give" Japanese, Chinese, Indians, Taiwanese, Koreans put their languages, cultures above others' maybe that’s why they are forging ahead economically, technologically, politically while we Africans are still sleeping.

 " Ni temi, ipanu lasan  ni gúgúrú kii s'ounje ”Egbẹ̀tàlá ìròhìn ò tó afojuba.Kosi ohun ti a le fi ede abinibi we."-Who will classify popcorn as food? We can only testify to what we see and not  what we hear..PROMOTE YOUR OWN LANGUAGE.