National Issues
Speak English And Not Your Native Language: An Issues Among Nigerian Parents -By Aasi-Buraimoh Sekinat Ayomide
Parents should encourage their child to speak their indigenous language for growth and development of the country and for the benefits of the coming generation and teachers, some times should code mix with local language if possible for the children to understand better.
No country develop with another man’s language. When a language dies out, future generations lose a vital part of the culture that is necessary to completely understand it. This makes language a vulnerable aspect of cultural heritage, and it becomes especially important to preserve it. So why do some Nigerian parents force their children to speak English and abandon their indigenous language? For parents, keeping your first language alive at home teaches children to take pride in their culture and roots. In terms of its value in social interactions, speaking your first language can strengthen ties with family members. If the native language is not maintained important links to family members may be lost.
Indigenous languages are vital to Culture and Society, learning a local language helps in understanding the culture and the aspects of the society which are unique to them. If you know the distinctive elements of the culture, this can prove to be a potent instrument in business. English language might be an official language used across the world but does not suggest one should neglect his/her indigenous language. Kids of nowadays barely speak their native language as a result of their parents pressure on them to speak foreign language (English language). Even in schools, teachers tag local languages as vernacular and any child caught speaking his/her native language in school will be punished for it. In fact, some parents when they go for formal gatherings, they instruct their kids not to speak their native language, which is very wrong.
Parents are the first teacher of every child, parents are expected to go as far as teaching their kids about their native customs and traditions, and not rebuking them for speaking in their native languages. It amazes me as some illiterate parents pressure their kids to speak English language when they themselves cannot even detect the errors in what they speak. The message from academic research is that, at home, parents should stick with the language they know best, which is their first language. It should be used as a medium of communicating with the children – even if they can not read it with them. Also, the best way for a child to excel in English is to be good in his/her own native language. Parents are suppose to encourage their children to speak their indigenous languages and make them proud of it.
Should I say, inferiority complex is the reason some parents forbid their kids from speaking their indigenous language. Are Nigerian languages what should not be heard in reputable places. I have witnessed a situation whereby husband threatened to divorce his wife if she continue using local language to communicate with their children. When it comes to language speaking, your indigenous language should be your number one priority.
While I was a teacher at Noblet School, there was a day I decided to ask my students for their names in my dialect (Yoruba), to greatest surprise only a few understand me and was able to answer me, even when about 80% of them are Yoruba. It is lack of common ethics for one to abandon ones cultural language for another; that kind of culture will simply stop germinating and and may even die in the nearest future. It is very important for every child to know what their culture is and by extension, practice it. Indigenous languages may have limitations like in socialization, but that should not be the reason for it abandonment.
Language is always the reminder about the culture and traditions one has been growing up in. Communicating in English, makes me sometimes feel I am far from home, my relatives, and friends. Parents should encourage their child to speak their indigenous language for growth and development of the country and for the benefits of the coming generation and teachers, some times should code mix with local language if possible for the children to understand better. The loss of a language distance people farther from their culture.
This should be a wake up call.
