SEC-S10W2| My Languages

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Hello friends!!

We meet again this week with an interesting topic to discuss..Are you ready to read my book views about languages?

A Language is a means by which people communicate to one another. Language unites people because they understand themselves better.

I know how to speak 4 languages. And they include Igbo, Hausa, Youruba and English.

Igbo language is my naive language. It is a means of communication for the Igbo natives of the eastern parts of Nigeria.

Igbo language is a very interesting and deep language. Every Igbo speaking tribe has a way they speak their own Igbo and this is one of the interesting things about Igbo language.

As I grew older I saw Igbo language as my own, my parents used it at home to communicate with us and that was how I knew how to speak Igbo.

Hausa language is spoken by the northern parts of Nigeria. And I learnt how to speak it by association. Even though am Igbo and from the east, I was born in the northern part of Nigeria were one of their languages spoken is Hausa.

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The school were I attended, one of the selective subjects are the 3 major languages of Nigeria which are Igbo, Hausa and Youruba. Students are to chose one. So I chose Hausa since am Igbo and already knew how to speak it. So by association and schooling I learned how to speak Hausa.

For Youruba language, I learnt how to speak it by observations and association. After my studies, I moved to the western part of my country where Youruba is their native language.

So living amongst the Youruba indigenous people made me learn how to speak their language. When I go to the market, I hear them speak Youruba not minding if you understood them or not, in the buses, you hear them speaking it. Didn't have a choice than paying more attention to the language.

Gradually, I started observing and asking questions and I started attempting to speak Youruba.

English language is the common language spoken in my country. It is also taught in schools as a major subject. I learned how to speak English in school.

From the primary schools to the university, English is taught and a major subject. Infact in the Nigerian universities there is a course known as English and linguistics

Generally, I love learning new things including languages. So in addition to the 4 languages I know how to speak. The languages I would like to learn are Spanish and Zulu languages.

Zulu a language spoken in south Africa. I love how it sounds when spoken as I have seen In movies. Also Spanish is a language I constantly see here on steemit and I constant use my Google translator to translate it to English.

Zulu woman source	Spanish people source

The most difficult thing about learning other languages is the first stage of trying to understand what the words mean then the second stage of trying to pronounce the words and the last stage of making a sentence and conversing in that language

I remember when I was trying to learn Hausa language growing up. A friend I had who was an indigene of the Hausa speaking language. She would laugh at my pronouciation and ask me what I wanted to say. So she would finally tell me the right one. It was a difficult moment for me pronouncing it.

speaking a language source

Same situation when I was learning to speak Youruba language too. Understanding it was the first stage, then trying to speak it followed. Sometimes you know what you want to say in your mind but saying it is a problem. Hahah..

For me it is important to master several languages because you might never know where you would be in future.

I had an uncle many years ago who knew how to speak french language. At that time he was working with a car company, a foreign company.
Then one day, the manager put up an annoyance in the company saying there was an opening abroad, but it's for only for anyone who can speak french fluently.

No one knew how to speak french in the company except my uncle. That was how my uncle was taking out of Nigeria, given a better job opportunity to manage a branch abroad.

It is also important to master many languages in other to fit into certain cities, countries or continent. Many years ago after my school, o was posted to the northern part of my country to go and do a one year compulsory youth service. When I saw my posting letter, I was not afraid or panicked because I already knew how to speak Hausa.

Other corp members posted along side with me to the north didn't like it because they could not fit in because they didn't understand the language. They felt left out especially when they saw me having a conversation with the indigenes.

Learning other languages makes those you have learnt their languages feel accepted by you. It makes them feel loved and special.

Lastly learning other languages makes conversation easier, interesting and beautiful.

Let me invite some friends to tell me what they thing about languages.

@pandora2010
@liasteem
@ikwal