Language & Me

I love languages so so so much,sometimes i can't believe how much i do ,one of my friends even said that she's sure i'm a language in another life,lol,i wish i could understand and speak all the languages in the world even; when i was in Secondary school i used to think i would end up being a linguist as i was very good in French and Yoruba which were the only languages that were taught in my school at the time, i was equally quite good in written and spoken English,so funny now thinking back,i was obsessed with my Oxford Dictionary then and would read it after most English periods if i was free to learn new words and memorize transcriptions and i would practice pronouncing most of these words in front of everyone in class by mimicking my English Teacher (Pastor Saint),i was quite mischievous then and a 'tomboy'. I also loved reading novels a lot which kept my dictionary and i close friends as some big words would pop up once in a while in my novels ranging from 'Silhouette,Harlequin,Mills&Boons,Danielle steel,Heartsong,Nora Roberts,Stephen King,and so many others i cannot even recall now' (sadly i don't have the luxury of time to read novels as i would love to these days). ok..ok...novels will be for another post, back to my love for languages...as much as i loved French and was tired of always conjugating verbs,they scraped it when i was in JSS3 for lack of a teacher to my great disappointment, but i excelled in Yoruba, partly because i am Yoruba by tribe and it was spoken often to my siblings and i @home,and also because i had great interest in it and would go through my Yoruba literatures and textbooks during my free time to get a deeper understanding of the language and its history. I remember once reciting a Yoruba poem in class from a literature called 'akewi n ke' titled Ekun(cry),i remember some bits of the poem and it made me smile.

I believe all children should be encouraged to know @least 1native language and 1foreign language apart from English which happens to be our 'lingua franca'. From observation i have noticed most children can only speak the language from their mother's side,guess that's why its called 'mother tongue',since most mothers spend more time with the kids at home and speak their native languages to them.....back to me anyway,my 'Yoruba' which i am very proud of is quite good and give me an advantage since i look 'Igbo' so i get to know if a Yoruba person is gossiping about me and most times they are,lol,out of mischief i wait till the end of my interaction with them before i let it out that i'm 'Yoruba' and leave them with stunned expressions ;).

Yoruba aside, i did something about my interest and love for French after Youth Service (NYSC), when i had some time on my hands i enrolled in Centre de Culturel Francais and it was a wonderful experience and due to my background i moved up very fast and between September 2009 and June 2010, i became very good @it and took the DELF/DALF A2 & B1 exams which i passed although the B1 was quite challenging. I had to stop the classes though 'cos i was taking them in the evening after work and my workload became more hectic,i intend to go back to school soonest though and master the writing and speaking of the language thoroughly :).

I love Hausa also since i came to the North and interacted with the people #IMO its the sexiest language in Nigeria, and i intend to master it completely by hook or crook :D, i know the basics though and i'm getting better thanks to my curiosity and my Hausa friends.

Other languages though i just know the common ones, Japanese i know some words in, thanks to my love for Anime (Arigato)..lol., Indian/Hindi thanks to my immense love for their movies and their songs (so soothing,makes me feel like i'm in another continent when i'm listening to them{i'll upload some on ma YouTube page soon}) a few of my faves are Yuvvrajj, Kuchi Kuchi Hota Hai, Kal ho na ho, Kabi Kushi Kabi gam, Mard, and some others that i can't spell, Malay which my chinese friends taught me when i was in singapore (ni hao ma), German thanks to my aunt that lives in Germany and dropped brought a dictionary along (Guten Morgen), Italian thanks to one time when our TV was stuck only Italian stations for about 6 months and oh well French, Spanish and Italian are all kinda related.

Hopefully when i have money i will still have interest in learning the languages, i will stick to my French for now tho :D

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