A 30-mins watch of the news will tell you how hard the people are trying to learn another man's language. Passers-by when interviewed show that it aint easy to include the much-adored good spoken English in their list of priorities after the search for food to fill their bellies and shelter over their heads. You see very elderly people (who should have comprehended how to master it a long time ago) code-mixing & code-switching between English and their native tongues.
Signposts and sticker comments on buses like the one in the picture above show that the people are really struggling to speak English. Abi what is the native spelling for 'Such is life'? The answer is ' Curch is life". Some say the energy spent on mastering English is huge enough to make a visible impact on other fields like Engineering, Medicine et al.
Funniest thing is if you make the mistake of making a grammatical blunder (not speak English correctly), you will be the object of scorn and ridicule for as long as the memory of people who heard your blunder lasts.
Then go to other countries and see that what we all carry in our heads to be the language of the intellectuals is not a criteria for achieving astounding feats in fields of endeavour. Or how do you explain the fact that a german Professor who has gotten to great heights in research cannot speak English? How does he teach & learn from science? It's definitely through his native tongue.
That's why the Chinese President would not directly speak English even if he can. He would rather do it through an interpreter. Even if people like these force themselves to speak English, they do not bother if their English is of the most impeccable standard. No one boos them for not speaking it correctly. This can't be done over here oh! It's the dailies that will floor whoever the person is and tell him to go back to school to learn English.
Just imagine if President Obasanjo wakes up tomorrow and he addresses the nation in pidgin English understood by everybody in the nation. Una go laugh am to scorn abi? You will ask 'who gave him the pamison to speak pijin?'.But is it that bad to find other ways of expressing themselves.
As Lagbaja said, 'if I fire & you dodge I don't care".
1 comment:
The majority of the Hausas in Nigeria cannot understand English as they always say, "ba turenji".
They cannot even converse in "pidgin" English and how can we teach Chemistry and Mathematics in Yoruba?
I am not so bothered about Lingua Franca.
Just do the right thing.
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