**SEC WK2 : The language in my country**

Hello Friends, it is another wonderful time here to make publications. This time it is about our dear countries and the languages we speak. Languages are our identities and they are unique to us. Languages are like barrier breakers that enable us to interact and associate freely with others. No wonder when it was mentioned in the holy bible that God wanted to stop the activities of those who were poised in the build-up to the heavens, he inflicted them with different languages which destroyed their works. This shows the power of languages and the need to interact more efficiently.

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The giant of Africa is the one name that I have come to understand right from my days as a child. My dear country is Nigeria, the great nation and the leading force in Africa. A country that was born in 1960 when she got her independence from the hands of its colonial masters "Britain". We have so many languages I may not be able to name all in my publication. But one thing we must know is that it is a multilingual country with everyone represented in all of her doings.

However, some languages have dominated the space and have been adopted as majors in the present existence of my dear country. They include;

• English (The official language of communication in the country and instruction in Schools)
• Pidgin ( The unofficial and indirect use of English language widely used by both literate and unschooled citizens)
• Igbo ( A local language used by the people of the old South Eastern Extraction)
• Yoruba ( A local language used by the old Western region)
• Hausa ( A local language used in the Northern region of the country)

Other spoken languages in the country have sufficed and made their impacts despite the fact that they do not make up the list of major spoken languages in the country. Funnily, what is amazing about my country is that even in a particular region, their languages differ as one moves from state to state within the same region.

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I am familiar with about 3 of the above-mentioned major languages in my country. I am from the eastern part of the country which makes it easy for me to flow in my local dialect though born somewhere far in the northern region. I had the opportunity to learn all of these languages as listed above but circumstances played in and deprived me of not consolidating in them.

As I earlier said, I was born in the northern side of the country which exposed me to the Hausa language but due to unforeseen circumstances, we relocated when we were still young. Hence, I could not keep up with learning the language predominantly used over there.

This was also the case in the western region (Yourba-dominated language) where I did my compulsory national youth service program. I was almost learning this language not until my stay in this region expired and I couldn't secure a job after this service year and hence retired to base. At that point, I was already getting to know what to speak to transact with the market women and buy what I wanted.

There these are three languages I can fluently speak and flow under all circumstances;

• English
• Pidgin
• Igbo

Learning languages is indeed a good one as It helps one improve business transactions and as well the generality of life. Just as I mentioned earlier when I was in the western region of the country that was dominated by Yoruba-speaking citizens, I was beginning to learn some of their language that improved my purchases. It was easy but I was forced to do so because an average woman in the market may not understand my English and some of them don't speak the pidgin hence, which makes it difficult to communicate.

I am able to communicate here simply because of the English language I learned during my school days and hence this helps me to blog and well earn on the platform. Just as I mentioned, languages are very vital to the day-to-day activities of humans.

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Very well, this is my responsibility as a parent. If I could mention the benefits of learning languages, I should be able to communicate and imbibe the same into my kids. Just as I mentioned above, it helps in business transactions within and outside the country and helps in making life easier by efficiently communicating well and interacting both in the social and business environments.

Not just exposing them to the local languages inherent in the country, I also have reasons to expose them to the major world languages like French, German, and Chinese to also enable them to be versatile in all they get indulged with.

Thank you!

Inviting @ruthjoe and @hisgeneral.