SEC WK2 : The language in my country

INTRODUCTION

Pixababy

Hello to my fellow steemians, hope you are all doing well, and I am doing fine over here. Welcome to another interesting engagement season brought to us by steem4nigeria with the exciting topic "the language in your country".

Language is the most effective means of communication. There are different ways and languages in which we communicate with, and I am glad to share most of my knowledge about this with us.

Pixababy

The name of my country is Nigeria. Nigeria is located in the western part of Africa and is one of the most populated black race in the world and blessed with mineral resources like crude oil which is our major exported resources, gold, cocoa, palm oil etc. In Nigeria there are six geopolitical zones which are:

• North Central or middle belt
• North east
• North west
• South West
• South east
• South South also known as the Niger delta

Nigeria is a country made up of 36 states with more than 300 ethnic groups and over 500 languages. Every country has it official language and so does Nigeria, the official language of Nigeria is English language which is the most widely spoken language.

Among it numerous languages, the three major languages in Nigeria are Yoruba, Hausa and lgbo. Some of the other geographical languages which makes up the 500 languages in Nigeria are:

Efik-ibibio
Gbagyi
Urhobo
Ijaw
Fulani
Ikwere
Tiv
Isoko
Ukwuani
Kamwe
Idoma
Kanuri
Nupe etc.

Most of these languages are similar and only have slight differences

Pixababy

Firstly am from akwa ibom state which among the states that make up the south South geopolitical zone. They are about 20 spoken languages in akwa ibom state, the major ones are Ibibio, Oron, Anaang and Eket languages.

Among the languages in Nigeria, I am only familiar with five languages and these are: lbibio, Yoruba, ikwere, Igbo and English the official language.

I have an impressive knowledge about English language due to the fact that I was taught right from the first stage of my education to the higher institution. English is the world's most spoken language so it is important to at least know it.

Ibibio is my native dialect, I learnt this at home. To help expand my knowledge and that of my siblings, my parents use our local dialect to communicate and always making arrangements that we spend some weeks at akwa ibom during the Christmas period and this made it easier for us to understand the language.

Ikwere is a common language in Rivers state. I and my parents base in Rivers state, I was born and spent almost all my life there. My neighbors knew the ikwere language since they were indigenes, so when I showed interest they taught me.

I learnt Yoruba and Igbo during my secondary school days. My classmates taught me and since I was fast in catching up the language, they taught me with pleasure and this tightened our friendship even after graduation.

Pixababy

• It has indeed helped improve my life a lot. For Instance, if I want to pass a message to my mom and there is a visitor, I simply speak in my dialect for her and she would understand.

• The knowledge of Yoruba really puts me on the edge over others. In my area of residence, meat is commonly sold my the Yorubas, so when I go to buy meat I would simply speak the dialect for them, and they will sell the meat properly for me without any cheating.

• Knowledge of Igbo helped me and my mom on an occasion where we wanted to buy clothes, the seller brought the clothes we requested for the sum of twenty-five thousand naira (25,000) then I interacted with him in igbo, and he brought out a more quality material and sold it to us for the sum of eighteen thousand naira (18,000)**

• The knowledge of ikwere helped us to get a house at a subsided rate since I helped did the bargaining with the landlord myself.

• A true knowledge of English language puts use in an advantage over those who don't have the language. As your intelligence and value could be rated by your ability to speak fluently and communicate with others.

Pixababy

Yes I will definitely teach these languages and the reasons are:

• Learning other languages can put them on the edge over others and could provide them with greater opportunities.

• So that they can be able to interact with other people wherever they find themselves, and it would give them a sense of belonging.

• Learning other languages could save them from trouble, and it will help them know about other people's culture.

• So they would be confident in themselves and have value in the society.

It is indeed wonderful and important to learn more languages. Things taught at an early age are easier to understand so it is best to teach the children when they are in their early stage.

While teaching them other languages but foreign and local, I would also make sure they are proud of their local dialect.

I would like to invite @emmyjr, @emmy01 and @dar22 to take part in this contest.