Language brain dead
From a tender age, I developed a phobia for English language. I did not hate English but I never thought I could pass the language. Later, I discovered it extended beyond English even Arabic, French and Yoruba. With that discovery, I concluded I had two phobias:
1. phobia for writing Yoruba(which is my mouth tongue) and English language
2. Complete phobia for non-mother tongue, non- official language.
I attended a day primary school so I could go to Madarasa (a school with the goal of teaching the in-depth of the Quran) after school. After concluding primary school, I got admission into a boarding secondary school, so I stopped going to Madarasa. I enrolled for Arabic in secondary school with the hope that I would be able to read the Quran. During my holidays and after secondary school, I tried private tutoring (1ce, 2ce, 3ce)...Finally, I gave up and stuck to reading the English meaning of the Quran. Although, I wish, I hope I can still learn how to read the Quran and know the meaning by heart.
French is the second official language in Nigeria. While in primary school, it became compulsory to learn French in schools so from class 3 and also my first 4years in secondary school I studied French. I passed both my French and Arabic exams however, I can't express myself in these languages.
Someone once told me - "If you think a culture is superior to yours, you might end up picking up their actions or ways” Does that mean I don't think any culture is superior to mine. For several years, I have had this thought and also the probability of being Languages brain dead. At least I thought I was the brain dead to new languages till I joined University.
One foreign Language ke?? Are you kidding me? Arabic, French, Japanese, Spanish and Swahili... Think they later introduced Chinese. But seriously, why, how? No exemption? That was when I realized I wasn't Language brain dead; maybe I didn't just have interest in the previously attempted Languages. Swahili nikupoa sana. I don't think East African culture is superior to mine, infact, the two accents I can play with very well are not East African. Indian and South African accent are also not superior or inferior to mine.
I used to write short stories in secondary school I however I knew I wasn't too good in English, I needed someone to review it. I once gave someone my story stories to review, before I knew it, she was writing the same short stories but with different characters. I decided never to share my writing again. I remember googling my full name and post came up. I couldn't even share my writing with a person, why will I share a poem on the internet.
I was inspired to write spoken words o by someone closed to my heart, shared it with the person. After, I started writing little advice, deep Personal message on my BBM. I sent out one of my advices to all ladies on my bbm list and after reading it, Opeyemi Dada pinged me and said, you should get it published. I felt no one will be interested in publishing my write-up since I usually use Basic. I never expect to have many people reading my blog. I am blessed with two Ope Dada who play different roles in my writing, one inspired me to publish, while the other with large followership on twitter will always put my post as must read.
Another friend of mine, sometimes ping me to write deep PMs for her, she makes me very proud of my writing.
I am very thankful to all those who have inspired me one way or the other to keep writing, and all my editors( Ginika, Ogo, Ope Dada and Ms Amy). Ms Amy once said, pour your heart out, it is your blog- only grammatical errors will be corrected.
I was advised to read books (did I mention I dislike reading, am sure if I liked it might have graduated with Summa cum laude) maybe the books will help my imagination, broaden and my vocabulary. May through their words I can get inspired...
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