6 things you should start doing if you don't want your language dead

macfranc007 October 30, 2017 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Nigerian newspapers 24/7 Wale Akinola

Editor’s note: Oladele Saheed, the NAIJ.com partner blogger, in his latest article, explains six vital things people should start doing if they don’t want their languages dead.

Saheed is the founder of War Against the Falling Standard of English Project (WAFSEP).

He has trained teachers in over 200 schools and trained many journalists and other media practitioners across Nigeria.

He has kindled people’s interest in vocabulary learning through his Online Daily Vocabulary Quiz (DVQ).

He has also got approval of the federal ministry of education to use his Remedial English Pronunciation Software (REPS).

Oladele could be contacted via: 07010053775 or eruditeclp@gmail.com

More details in NAIJ.com’s step-by-step guide for guest bloggers

Last week when I wrote about how to win war against falling standard of English, some people considered it unnecessary. They argued we should be promoting our languages and not English. I was really glad that Nigerians had finally woken up.

However, this week we decided to conduct a poll to know which of the six languages Erudite Millennium Ltd is prepared to offer online do people really want to learn. To our surprise, out of the 376 respondents, 87 people chose Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo while the remaining 289 preferred French, Arabic and English.

While I understand why anyone would want to learn English, French and Arabic for economic and other reasons; we should endeavour to promote our indigenous languages. If the Japanese and Germans do not abandon their languages for English, why should we?

Moreover, what a lot of people are yet to realise is how fast a language can die. According to Susan Chebet, languages grow and die just like living organisms. Sadly, UNESCO has given 3000 of about 7000 languages in the world 100 years to live. If you do not want your language among those to die soon, here are the 6 things you need to start doing.

1. Speak your language to your children. Speaking your language to your children does not make their English poor. In fact, a good knowledge of their mother tongue and not a smattering one will fortify their English. I have never regretted speaking Yoruba to my children.

2. Read in your language. Reading in your language will deepen your knowledge and make you a better user of your language. It will also make you appreciate your culture better.

3. Write in your language. Writing in your language makes it attractive to people. Writing it especially online means you are saving your language from dying. According to a recent study by Linguist András Kornai, less than 5 percent of current world languages are in use online and the Internet may be helping the other 95 percent to their graves.

4. Encourage the teaching of indigenous languages in schools. This is especially good for your child's sense of belonging. As a matter of fact, if I were you, I would not enrol my children in any school that does not teach my language.

5. Support projects aimed at developing your language. You can partner with experts to write dictionaries, grammar and story books or digitise your language.

6. Be proud of your language. Language and culture are inseparable. Whatever happens to your language happens to your culture. If you are proud of your language, you will be proud to speak, write or use it anywhere.

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Today, only few of us can speak our mother tongues for 30 minutes without code-mixing. Why do we have to kill our languages for others to live? Learning English, Arabic, French or any other foreign language is good only if it does not affect your own language.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that the founder of Erudite Millennium Limited, Saheed Oladele, explained why war against falling standard of English must be fought and won.

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