How many Chinese speak Changana? How many Americans speak Shona? How many British speak Cena? How many Portuguese speak Ndau? How many French speak Macua?
In this article, the word foreign, was used to mean any language or culture that is not Bantu.
Language is a mysterious crucial element in human lives. It identifies us by carrying the authenticity of whoever we are. The inexplainable symbiotic relationship we have with it is transcendental. Our bond is totally unbreakable, wherever it is, there are people, and wherever there are people, its presence is also noticed. This natural element, in every society, plays a predominant role of connecting us all, thus communicating thoughts, ideas, and feelings.
English language has become an indispensable prolific international instrument, of our life time. Today, many people celebrate its successful expansion, as it facilitates communication barriers and brings people with great cultural and linguistic divergences together.
The consciousness of language promotion is vividly seen, nowadays, in most developed countries, if not all. Their linguistic recognition is unmistakably evident, well noticed in the diffusion of their culture and identity around the globe. To name just the few, English, Spanish, French, Slavic, Dutch, Mandarin are currently learned second languages around the world, principally in Africa. Besides carrying culture and identity, these languages go beyond, carrying new realities in both Science and Business fields. The linguistic recognition of these countries has also elevated the prestige and self-esteem of their citizens, as they witness the global awareness of their own existence. Their children have been academically advantaged, since their educational curricula permit the process of teaching, all subjects, in their mother tongues. The language acquisition process is boosted early at home, at an early stage, and is fortified at school, thereby facilitating their learning process and the development of better linguistic competence, as they continue further with their studies.
However, while other languages are escalating, evolving along with daily realities, African bantu languages are dying. We have neglected the substantial use of our native languages. They have become so limited to explain new realities. We have discredited them in front of other thriving cultures. From the natural essence of the power of languages, other cultures have boosted their languages to languages of power. That is why in Africa, speaking English, French, Portuguese, Mandarin etc. has become open doors of employment opportunities.
Today, we witness the stampede of African parents, investing great amounts of money to different foreign language teaching institutions. These parents have become aware of the system they don’t fully understand. They try so hard to eradicate native language acquisition from their children, because they have associated the foreign language speaking with employment and the speaking of native language with total disgrace and ignorance. But this truth is wrong. It is only the way how tables are set. THE SYSTEM. And any system is changeable. Today, using our native languages, we can’t even dare explaining square roots in simple Mathematics, weathering in Geography, balance sheet in Accountancy, the atoms in Physics, software in Computers, combustion in Chemistry. We have let our languages become so primitive to explain nothing. They have become too colloquial, the ones we only use for all informal conversations.
In most cases, schools have become a night mare to our little African brothers and sisters. They are born and grow up in native language speaking homes and societies. When they start school, the curriculum is set in a twisted way that totally excludes their mother language. Their first contact with the foreign language is at school and it is only spoken at school. The impact they have is totally negative and detrimental to their learning process. How is it possible for them to learn, Math’s, Social science and Environmental science while they cannot articulate any word of the language being used? In the end, they memorise definitions they don’t understand. For them, learning is memorizing rather than understanding concepts. They have become so disadvantaged. First, they have to understand the foreign language, whatever it maybe Portuguese, English or French, and it is only when they start understanding the foreign language, which takes considerable years, their learning starts.
It’s disgraceful and detrimental to our cultural status, when we witness bragging African people speaking and writing more than three or four foreign languages, but they hardly construct a sentence in their own. We have become so ignorant to copy and paste one's own culture and delete ours permanently. Speaking bantu languages has become the emission of primitive images whilst the foreign languages reveal civilization. The situation becomes more complicated when, for Africans, to be is to be like Europeans, Asians, Australians, and Americans. This is evidently seen in the way we dress, eat, recreate and speak. We have become the shadows of other people's cultures, we go unconsciously wherever they go, and we do ignorantly what they do. But at the end of the day, it is not the shadow that is real, it is just a reflection of a real entity.
Finally, it is not about avoiding the learning of other people’s languages, but it’s all about creating a balance and equality by appreciating and value what is ours. The restoration of our identity by reviving the full use of our native languages. Africans may speak and write as many foreign languages as they wish, but also having the full domain and usage, in all areas, of their own mother tongues. The multiplicity of our languages cannot be a justification of not introducing them in our school curricula. There is always a way out, if you love something.
If Bibles have been translated into various bantu languages, everywhere in Africa. That is good, because it shows an enormous possibility. Who translated them? And why also not in Science, Business and Technology?
Written by Bennie Umera.
02/08/2017
In this article, the word foreign, was used to mean any language or culture that is not Bantu.
Language is a mysterious crucial element in human lives. It identifies us by carrying the authenticity of whoever we are. The inexplainable symbiotic relationship we have with it is transcendental. Our bond is totally unbreakable, wherever it is, there are people, and wherever there are people, its presence is also noticed. This natural element, in every society, plays a predominant role of connecting us all, thus communicating thoughts, ideas, and feelings.
English language has become an indispensable prolific international instrument, of our life time. Today, many people celebrate its successful expansion, as it facilitates communication barriers and brings people with great cultural and linguistic divergences together.
The consciousness of language promotion is vividly seen, nowadays, in most developed countries, if not all. Their linguistic recognition is unmistakably evident, well noticed in the diffusion of their culture and identity around the globe. To name just the few, English, Spanish, French, Slavic, Dutch, Mandarin are currently learned second languages around the world, principally in Africa. Besides carrying culture and identity, these languages go beyond, carrying new realities in both Science and Business fields. The linguistic recognition of these countries has also elevated the prestige and self-esteem of their citizens, as they witness the global awareness of their own existence. Their children have been academically advantaged, since their educational curricula permit the process of teaching, all subjects, in their mother tongues. The language acquisition process is boosted early at home, at an early stage, and is fortified at school, thereby facilitating their learning process and the development of better linguistic competence, as they continue further with their studies.
However, while other languages are escalating, evolving along with daily realities, African bantu languages are dying. We have neglected the substantial use of our native languages. They have become so limited to explain new realities. We have discredited them in front of other thriving cultures. From the natural essence of the power of languages, other cultures have boosted their languages to languages of power. That is why in Africa, speaking English, French, Portuguese, Mandarin etc. has become open doors of employment opportunities.
Today, we witness the stampede of African parents, investing great amounts of money to different foreign language teaching institutions. These parents have become aware of the system they don’t fully understand. They try so hard to eradicate native language acquisition from their children, because they have associated the foreign language speaking with employment and the speaking of native language with total disgrace and ignorance. But this truth is wrong. It is only the way how tables are set. THE SYSTEM. And any system is changeable. Today, using our native languages, we can’t even dare explaining square roots in simple Mathematics, weathering in Geography, balance sheet in Accountancy, the atoms in Physics, software in Computers, combustion in Chemistry. We have let our languages become so primitive to explain nothing. They have become too colloquial, the ones we only use for all informal conversations.
In most cases, schools have become a night mare to our little African brothers and sisters. They are born and grow up in native language speaking homes and societies. When they start school, the curriculum is set in a twisted way that totally excludes their mother language. Their first contact with the foreign language is at school and it is only spoken at school. The impact they have is totally negative and detrimental to their learning process. How is it possible for them to learn, Math’s, Social science and Environmental science while they cannot articulate any word of the language being used? In the end, they memorise definitions they don’t understand. For them, learning is memorizing rather than understanding concepts. They have become so disadvantaged. First, they have to understand the foreign language, whatever it maybe Portuguese, English or French, and it is only when they start understanding the foreign language, which takes considerable years, their learning starts.
It’s disgraceful and detrimental to our cultural status, when we witness bragging African people speaking and writing more than three or four foreign languages, but they hardly construct a sentence in their own. We have become so ignorant to copy and paste one's own culture and delete ours permanently. Speaking bantu languages has become the emission of primitive images whilst the foreign languages reveal civilization. The situation becomes more complicated when, for Africans, to be is to be like Europeans, Asians, Australians, and Americans. This is evidently seen in the way we dress, eat, recreate and speak. We have become the shadows of other people's cultures, we go unconsciously wherever they go, and we do ignorantly what they do. But at the end of the day, it is not the shadow that is real, it is just a reflection of a real entity.
Finally, it is not about avoiding the learning of other people’s languages, but it’s all about creating a balance and equality by appreciating and value what is ours. The restoration of our identity by reviving the full use of our native languages. Africans may speak and write as many foreign languages as they wish, but also having the full domain and usage, in all areas, of their own mother tongues. The multiplicity of our languages cannot be a justification of not introducing them in our school curricula. There is always a way out, if you love something.
If Bibles have been translated into various bantu languages, everywhere in Africa. That is good, because it shows an enormous possibility. Who translated them? And why also not in Science, Business and Technology?
Written by Bennie Umera.
02/08/2017
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