Area_boy: First of all, Language evolves. And if you think anyone can keep a particular language for a long time then u're making a mistake. To make a child learn his language seems pointless when he is born and raised in a different culture. Taking them home doesn't make much sense either because they are only linked to their heritage by birth and nothing else. An American born/raised African is in fact an American and not African

Take an African child born and raised in a western country and compare to one raised in Africa. It will be quite obvious they will be very different individuals culture-wise. One system isnt clearly better than the other by mere inspection. What works in a certain society should stay there

Preservation of culture is an illusion. Culture has always evolved and will continue to do so, our ability to adapt and make the most of it is what differentiate success from epic fail

i bet by 2050 Africans will mostly be speaking Indo-European languages as there first because Africans think there languages have "inferiority" European languages which is sad even south Africa is have that problem

UNDER the 1996 constitution, all 11 of South Africa's official languages “must enjoy parity of esteem and be treated equitably”. In practice English, the mother tongue of just 8% of the people, increasingly dominates all the others. Its hegemony may even threaten the long-term survival of the country's African languages, spoken as the mother tongue of 80% of South Africans, despite the government's repeated promises to promote and protect indigenous languages and culture.

Under apartheid, there were just two official languages, English and Afrikaans, a variant of Dutch with a dash of French, German, Khoisan (spoken by so-called Bushmen and Hottentots), Malay and Portuguese. Pre-colonial African languages were relegated to the black townships and tribal “homelands”. Even there, English was often chosen as the medium of education in preference to the inhabitants' mother tongues. Black South Africans increasingly rejected Afrikaans as the language of the main oppressor; English was a symbol of advancement and prestige.

Today, 16 years after the advent of black-majority rule, English reigns supreme. Not only is it the medium of business, finance, science and the internet, but also of government, education, broadcasting, the press, advertising, street signs, consumer products and the music industry. For such things Afrikaans is also occasionally used, especially in the Western Cape province, but almost never an African tongue. The country's Zulu-speaking president, Jacob Zuma, makes all his speeches in English. Parliamentary debates are in English. Even the instructions on bottles of prescription drugs come only in English or Afrikaans.

Yet most black South Africans are not proficient in English. This is because most of their teachers give lessons in a language that is not their own. To give non-English-speaking children a leg-up, the government agreed last year that all pupils should be taught in their mother tongue for at least the first three years of primary school. But outside the rural areas, where one indigenous language prevails, this is neither financially nor logistically feasible.

Some people suggest reducing the number of official languages to a more manageable three: English, Afrikaans and Zulu, the mother tongue of nearly a quarter of South Africans. But non-Zulus would object. Unless brought up on a farm, few whites speak an African language. For the school-leaving exam, proficiency in at least two languages is required. But most native English-speakers opt for Afrikaans, said to be easy to learn, rather than a useful but harder African tongue. At universities African-language departments are closing.

Some effort is being made to protect African languages from this apparently inexorable decline. The Sunday Times, South Africa's biggest-selling weekend paper, recently launched a Zulu edition. In September the Oxford University Press brought out the first isiZulu-English dictionary in more than 40 years.

Many of the black elite, who send their children to English-speaking private schools or former white state schools, may accept English emerging as the sole national language. Many talk English to their children at home. Fluency in the language of Shakespeare is regarded as a sign of modernity, sophistication and power.

Will South Africa's black languages suffer the fate of the six languages brought by the country's first Indian settlers 150 years ago? Maybe so, thinks Rajend Mesthrie at the University of Cape Town. For the first 100-odd years, he says, South Africa's Indians taught and spoke to their children in their native tongues. But English is now increasingly seen as “the best way forward”. Today most young Indians speak only English or are bilingual in English and Afrikaans, though they may continue to chat at home in a kind of pidgin English larded with Indian and Zulu.

shymexx:

Are you sure you're still in high school, Odumchi?? You're too freaking brilliant and knowledgeable to be in high school...

You're my darg, and I admire your mentality...

Nice and thought provoking post, keep it up, fam..

are saying our high school students cannot write a simple composition or a short story then a lot has gone wrong since i left high sch.many yrs ago.

Billyonaire: You call Nigeria hell hole, yet your relatives are marrying and residing in the hell hole. These "I wanna-gonna" toilet washers sef. They never stop to amuse us. No comfortable Nigerian lives abroad. I keep saying I love Owerri more than New York.

It is a hell hole. My relatives that choose to live there are adults and are responsible for their own decisions. Everytime you tell these mofos you hate that shytehole, they come up with the line ''but many people are making money there''. Who dafuq told you I care about the dirty money you are making? I love washing toilets and I'd rather be washing toilets in London than washing toilets in Lagos.

pufectskin: Come on Billyonaire! Don't b like dat just cos u don't like his opinion. Comfortable Nigerians do live abroad. A very high % of black US doctors are Nigerians and Nigerians r considered a "model group" in d united states (google Nigerians in America if u have time). As we have Nigerians in scam and toilet washing, we have a higher number in professional fields too...in fact many. After college in Florida, I got a pretty well payin job myself and only came to naija to get nysc out of d way, and I did find business opportunities which I am exploring in naija. But my plan is to go back to US. I agree dere is money in naija as there r lots of problems here (and problems = business opprotunity), but there are many ppl who would take comfort over millions (wats d point of having 300million naira in ur acct but the roads u drive ur range rover r bumpy and u have to deal with noisy generator sounds and bunch of other issues). In d US, d same quality of life would cost u less financially, and ur kids would also have a better chance at life.

Now that you have come with a peace offering, I will stem down and be rational about this. I do not tolerate any Nigerian staying abroad insulting our commonwealth, our inheritance, our home. I havent seen chinese in USA insulting their roots. Warn that never-do-well Norris to stop insulting Nigeria and Nigerians, if he does that again, he will get the evil part of me.

norrisman:

It is a hell hole. My relatives that choose to live there are adults and are responsible for their own decisions. Everytime you tell these mofos you hate that shytehole, they come up with the line ''but many people are making money there''. Who dafuq told you I care about the dirty money you are making? I love washing toilets and I'd rather be washing toilets in London than washing toilets in Lagos.

You are even in London and not USA. Its a big shame. Make sure you rent fake accents when you are coming for the wedding. Its why people like you fall victims to felons cos you show off your rented accent.

pufectskin: Let's stop kidding ourselves; nigerian culture is over hyped! We diasporans like to think we morally better off or our culture is sooo much better dan dat of Americans. If we have such a great culture, why isn't it reflected in our society? Why is Nigeria sooo corrupt? Why do we leave 80% of our society in abject poverty? Why are our leaders; even just regular citizens sooo corrupt? I just got back to Nigeria barely less than a year and been scammed/duped by my best childhood friend (she doesn't pick my calls or returns my BB msgs anymore cos she is ashamed; dis is a girl from a notable family for dat matter). I am sorry to say if u r a diasporan, u really need to come home to see dat we really hv no values in this society anymore. Girls use their bodies to get high marks in unis, even d married girls r on parole, ppl marry for d wrong reasons, d private schools cost as much as american schools but d standard is about 60% close to wat u get in d US, d kids only respect ppl with a lil money, actually every1 here respect only ppl with a lil change; bottomline is I don't know what Nigerian values r...
Americans have a sense of who they are and where they want to be...we know American ideals of Dignity, self respect, hard work, innovation, entrepreneurship, human rights and equal opportunity for all. What are Nigerian ideals? Do we have any? Or are we just fantasizing about family/villages raising kids? How many little kids in Nigeria have d level of advanced thinking an average 5yr old american has? How come we glorify scammers/get rich quick no matter d means men here in Nigeria? We call d scammed maga (I wasn't even greedy when I got scammed...long story for another day).
As I said b4, I have been here less than a year, and I hv concluded dat dis is not d Nigeria I used to know; frankly this is not d type of society where I would love to raise a kid. I want my kids to be exposed to science, innovation, diverse cultures; I want them to know what real love is..., I want them to learn to love ppl for who they are and learn to stand up for what is right...dats not very possible here.
D orientation here is of very low quality. No surprise we r where we r.

You hav said it all we hav no good cultural value anymore,naija is a dog eat dog society,no body is his brother's keeper,we are just pretenders that condole & glorify what is bad,mundane,are we not still d same culture-minded folks that sold our neighbours,brothers into slavery 200 yrs ago? And still practice ritual killings,parents selling their babies?go to d east 4 xmas with flashy car & see if yur village folks will not plot & kidnap you 4 ransom or even ritual.

Billyonaire: You are even in London and not USA. Its a big shame. Make sure you rent fake accents when you are coming for the wedding. Its why people like you fall victims to felons cos you show off your rented accent.

So if I speak with my akpako accent, I'll be safe. How do you know these things? Are you a reformed or current armed robber?

So should I leave my children behind seeing that they speak with a 'fake' accent? Imagine not being able to go to the country they want you to be proud of just beacuse you do not speak the local lingo. #majorshytehole

odumchi: Based on my own personal observations, I've noticed a few things that continue to plague we Africans in the West and especially in America.

Here are those things:

1. There is an African proverb that goes, "It takes a village to raise a child". In a society that places much of an emphasis on the nuclear family and little on the extended family, it is very difficult to raise a child [up to African standards] with the absence of the "village". If the father and mother are at work, then the child is either left to his/her own care or the care of a babysitter. Such a condition does not support the passage of lineal knowledge, advice, and proverbs as is customary in most African cultures.

2. In a country where most people speak only one language (like America), it would be very difficult for one to properly allow his/her children to grow well acquainted with their native tongue, unless of course great care is taken. As for us Nigerians, the shameful truth is that many of our children born and raised in the diaspora are unable to communicate with us in their native tongues.

3. When a child is born, he/she immediately takes a liken to his/her immediate locality. We Africans (in my opinion) must continue to remind ourselves and our children that we are mere visitors and not settlers. I've seen too many cases in which an Amercan-born African child is rarely taken home by the parents but then, when marriage comes around, is forced to search home for a spouse. If your child cannot even say the name of his community, then don't expect him/her to marry from there when the time comes.

Although the dangers are many, living in the West can be rewarding if approached properly. I'd like to hear some of you guys' ideas/responses/attitudes.

rubbish write up with little or no meaning. Pure gibberish because you are talking garbage that doesnt make sense.

norrisman:

So if I speak with my akpako accent, I'll be safe. How do you know these things? Are you a reformed or current armed robber?

So should I leave my children behind seeing that they speak with a 'fake' accent? Imagine not being able to go to the country they want you to be proud of just beacuse you do not speak the local lingo. #majorshytehole

Stay where you are safe. And tell your kids you are from Ireland and your mum was from St Lucia, they will believe you.Next time you wanna visit a website, it should not be nairaland, cos a young "hell-hole" inhabitant developed it. I bet you, if you are worth your salt, you wont be visiting a website where hell-hole occupants are. Murrafvcker!

[quote author=ezotik]

lol...so u are a child? good. and there is no need to lie about going home regularly.



and aren't there more community based programs in america than in nigeria? and to crown it all, they also have a welfare system which i guess ur family survives on




ezotik I guess you know this because your family and his have this in common?

Coldfeet: ezotik I guess you know this because your family and his have this in common?

no.

Billyonaire: Stay where you are safe. And tell your kids you are from Ireland and your mum was from St Lucia, they will believe you.Next time you wanna visit a website, it should not be nairaland, cos a young "hell-hole" inhabitant developed it. I bet you, if you are worth your salt, you wont be visiting a website where hell-hole occupants are. Murrafvcker!

Guy, why are you waisting your precious time trying to educate a self-aclaimed retard.
Allow him/her to keep on parading in his folly jacket.

ezotik:

lol...so u are a child? good. and there is no need to lie about going home regularly.

and aren't there more community based programs in america than in nigeria? and to crown it all, they also have a welfare system which i guess ur family survives on

and they dont do that over there? because u in particular (or other nigerians) live in isolation without ur grandparents, uncles, aunts etc around u does not mean the general populace does. if i remember correctly, obama was mostly raised by his grandparents.

sorry, most nigerians live in the cities in their states and only go tend to go 'home' occasionally. the igbos for example, most of them who live in lagos only go 'home' during christmas and new year celebrations and by 2nd or 3rd of Jan, they are back to lag...while the others do not move an inch and have not been to the east in years!! so they live permanently in lagos and that is why they call themselves lagosians.

I just want to make it clear to you that, despite your personal convictions, I am no child. A hundred and fifty years ago, I would've been old enough to establish my own family; however, I digress. If you don't believe that we return home regularly, then that is your own business.

It's funny how you (the supposed adult) is displaying the lowest level of maturity by attempting to insult my family and I as if you have something to gain. Like they say, age is but a number; you've shown me that age is no guarantee of an increase in maturity.

Anyway, the reason why we human beings have older relatives is so that they can pass along their life lessons to us. Someone who has no older relatives to learn from will blunder more in life than the person that learns from his/her elders. It is through this lineal passing of knowledge that progression occurs.

As for the Igbo, most of those that live in cities that aren't their hometown aren't permanent residents. The Igbo (and other peoples) driven from their localities in search of employment. After staying in a city for a specific amount of time, they eventually return to their native lands. That is the same case with many other Nigerians abroad.

norrisman:

It is a hell hole. My relatives that choose to live there are adults and are responsible for their own decisions. Everytime you tell these mofos you hate that shytehole, they come up with the line ''but many people are making money there''. Who dafuq told you I care about the dirty money you are making? I love washing toilets and I'd rather be washing toilets in London than washing toilets in Lagos.

Have you seen a documentary....EXPLORING EUROPE...it is a documentary about Africans leaving their home to search for better opportunities only to see that they face the same issues as native Blacks in the country.

The African guy cleans toilets and worked his way to his business in London.

odumchi:

I just want to make it clear to you that, despite your personal convictions, I am no child. A hundred and fifty years ago, I would've been old enough to establish my own family; however, I digress. If you don't believe that we return home regularly, then that is your own business.

It's funny how you (the supposed adult) is displaying the lowest level of maturity by attempting to insult my family and I as if you have something to gain. Like they say, age is but a number; you've shown me that age is no guarantee of an increase in maturity.

Anyway, the reason why we human beings have older relatives is so that they can pass along their life lessons to us. Someone who has no older relatives to learn from will blunder more in life than the person that learns from his/her elders. It is through this lineal passing of knowledge that progression occurs.

lol..odumchi, u are not a child but not an adult, so what are u? an adolescent? and whats with the hypersensitivity to my post? obviously, u lack a sense of humour, do.

so what is ur gripe exactly? u feel isolated in a foreign land, but instead of u to try and integrate and make urself feel at home in ur host country, u come here to rant with all sorts of generalizations that they lack what u supposedly have in ur home country? while in reality it is the other way round?

oh, i know it can be lonely abroad...especially when u are in a faraway country without ur kin and kith. but when u are feeling too lonely... like i earlier, instead of ranting on the internet, save towards a plane ticket and go home for some fresh air, so that u can have a balanced perspective.

As for the Igbo, most of those that live in cities that aren't their hometown aren't permanent residents. The Igbo (and other peoples) driven from their localities in search of employment. After staying in a city for a specific amount of time, they eventually return to their native lands. That is the same case with many other Nigerians abroad.

u do not know ur people then. there are igbos in lagos who do not know the road to the east not to mention other igbos who are permanently settled across nigeria cities outside the east. and only time they finally go back home is in caskets!!

I thought Odumchi was an elderly person cos he posts more in culture section

dayokanu: I thought Odumchi was an elderly person cos he posts more in culture section

That's one grown azz man wanting to be young again.

Like EzeUche's 40 yrs old sef claiming to be 22.

Ileke-IdI:


That's one grown azz man wanting to be young again.

Like EzeUche's 40 yrs old sef claiming to be 22.

Just like you at 22 claiming to be 50

dayokanu:

Just like you at 22 claiming to be 50

Wrong person?

The truth of the matter is that "things had really fallen apart" in nigeria and Africa in general.
These days nobody want to be seeing as 'village guy' or 'village man',if not,why are we still copying from the west by answering their names,immitating their accent while speaking english so that u sound like 'white man'?

The white man religion impose to African is like a death roll hanging on our neck,so Africans will keep losing their cultures and identities to the west.

To those on far away countries...
"you can't eat ur cake and have it"

Crayola1 again. . . I must be unconsciously stashing apku in my posts.

ezotik:

lol..odumchi, u are not a child but not an adult, so what are u? an adolescent? and whats with the hypersensitivity to my post? obviously, u lack a sense of humour, do.

so what is ur gripe exactly? u feel isolated in a foreign land, but instead of u to try and integrate and make urself feel at home in ur host country, u come here to rant with all sorts of generalizations that they lack what u supposedly have in ur home country? while in reality it is the other way round?

oh, i know it can be lonely abroad...especially when u are in a faraway country without ur kin and kith. but when u are feeling too lonely... like i earlier, instead of ranting on the internet, save towards a plane ticket and go home for some fresh air, so that u can have a balanced perspective.

I think you might have fallen victim to the dangers of living in the diaspora like I described above. I don't see why else you'd be insinuating that I am among the ranks of those who have lost touch with home.

Maybe to you America (or whatever part of the Western world that you live in) is your newfound home where you have found all of the things that you lacked in Nigeria, but for me it isn't so. In fact, I find the West lacking in many ways.

There's no place like home.

ezotik:
u do not know ur people then. there are igbos in lagos who do not know the road to the east not to mention other igbos who are permanently settled across nigeria cities outside the east. and only time they finally go back home is in caskets!!

But for some reason strange they flock back to the East in times of uncertainty (Biafran war, June 12, Boko Haram), right?

dayokanu: I thought Odumchi was an elderly person cos he posts more in culture section

Lol no I'm not. I'm only 16. I post mainly in the culture section because that's the section of Nairaland that interests me the most. Besides, I don't see how posting in the culture section makes one elderly, lol.

Ileke-IdI:


That's one grown azz man wanting to be young again.

Like EzeUche's 40 yrs old sef claiming to be 22.

I don't see anything that's unbelievable about it. If you don't believe it then that's your pot of soup.

achi4u: The truth of the matter is that "things had really fallen apart" in nigeria and Africa in general.
These days nobody want to be seeing as 'village guy' or 'village man',if not,why are we still copying from the west by answering their names,immitating their accent while speaking english so that u sound like 'white man'?

The white man religion impose to African is like a death roll hanging on our neck,so Africans will keep losing their cultures and identities to the west.

To those on far away countries...
"you can't eat ur cake and have it"

You've said it all, my brother. As they say in Afikpo: eziokwu bu i la ekwu.

I was joking. . . .

odumchi, who said u have lost touch with home? i said u were missing home, remember? but ur argument here is absurd and u are yet to prove how nigeria has more 'community sense' than the US. because u feel isolated does not mean they lack a community sense.

"But for some reason strange they flock back to the East in times of uncertainty (Biafran war, June 12, Boko Haram), right?"

huh? during a time of crisis, people are forced to go home...not that they leave voluntarily.
and since biafran war has ended, they flocked back.

anyway this ur topic is kinda stale..so na later.

pufectskin: Let's stop kidding ourselves; nigerian culture is over hyped! We diasporans like to think we morally better off or our culture is sooo much better dan dat of Americans. If we have such a great culture, why isn't it reflected in our society? Why is Nigeria sooo corrupt? Why do we leave 80% of our society in abject poverty? Why are our leaders; even just regular citizens sooo corrupt? I just got back to Nigeria barely less than a year and been scammed/duped by my best childhood friend (she doesn't pick my calls or returns my BB msgs anymore cos she is ashamed; dis is a girl from a notable family for dat matter). I am sorry to say if u r a diasporan, u really need to come home to see dat we really hv no values in this society anymore. Girls use their bodies to get high marks in unis, even d married girls r on parole, ppl marry for d wrong reasons, d private schools cost as much as american schools but d standard is about 60% close to wat u get in d US, d kids only respect ppl with a lil money, actually every1 here respect only ppl with a lil change; bottomline is I don't know what Nigerian values r...
Americans have a sense of who they are and where they want to be...we know American ideals of Dignity, self respect, hard work, innovation, entrepreneurship, human rights and equal opportunity for all. What are Nigerian ideals? Do we have any? Or are we just fantasizing about family/villages raising kids? How many little kids in Nigeria have d level of advanced thinking an average 5yr old american has? How come we glorify scammers/get rich quick no matter d means men here in Nigeria? We call d scammed maga (I wasn't even greedy when I got scammed...long story for another day).
As I said b4, I have been here less than a year, and I hv concluded dat dis is not d Nigeria I used to know; frankly this is not d type of society where I would love to raise a kid. I want my kids to be exposed to science, innovation, diverse cultures; I want them to know what real love is..., I want them to learn to love ppl for who they are and learn to stand up for what is right...dats not very possible here.
D orientation here is of very low quality. No surprise we r where we r.

EXCELLENT!!!!! NOTHING MORE NEEDS TO BE SAID.

The bottom line is that there positive aspects of both cultures--whether American or Nigerian--that we can teach our kids. A responsible parent would teach those positive aspects to his kids. Most importantly, though, our native tongue and all the other positive aspects of Nigerian culture and the culture of their country should be taught to our kids, so that they can easily interact with their heritage and the environment in which they live. Like Hispanic kids born in America, most of whom are bilingual, our Kids can be taught to be bilingual as long as their parents speak their native tongue to them at home.

Inferiority complex and what I call village mentality, of course, always make many Nigerian parents to take affirmative steps to refrain from teaching their kids their native language.

Princek12: The bottom line is that there positive aspects of both cultures--whether American or Nigerian--that we can teach our kids. A responsible parent would teach those positive aspects to his kids. Most importantly, though, our native tongue and all the other positive aspects of Nigerian culture and the culture of their country should be taught to our kids, so that they can easily interact with their heritage and the environment in which they live. Like Hispanic kids born in America, most of whom are bilingual, our Kids can be taught to be bilingual as long as their parents speak their native tongue to them at home.

Inferiority complex and what I call village mentality, of course, always make many Nigerian parents to take affirmative steps to refrain from teaching their kids their native language.

Thank you very much,

Imagine alot of illitrate parents teaching their kids english language while still living in their locality,what your indirectly telling your children is that your native language is inferior to that of foriegn language.

MacDaddy01: Nice thread but we should be focusing on making Nigeria a better place rather than making plans to live in the West.

How can you do that without the help of the Government? Do you think Nigerians with stellar performances in the respective fields wouldn't want to come and contribute to their own country?

The answer is staring you in the eyes I suppose.

A man like Philip Emeagwali alone, with the help of the government, will transform the technological sphere in Nigeria... Make we forget other underground 'BRAINS'

I BEG THROW WAY THAT YA TALK FOR DUSTBIN.

Billyonaire: Now that you have come with a peace offering, I will stem down and be rational about this. I do not tolerate any Nigerian staying abroad insulting our commonwealth, our inheritance, our home. I havent seen chinese in USA insulting their roots. Warn that never-do-well Norris to stop insulting Nigeria and Nigerians, if he does that again, he will get the evil part of me.

But Im sure there is a great difference in Identifying the Ills in a society and insulting it, to be honest with you, most Nigerians living abroad would rather live in Nigeria if we had power, good roads and better security.

Billyonaire: You are even in London and not USA. Its a big shame. Make sure you rent fake accents when you are coming for the wedding. Its why people like you fall victims to felons cos you show off your rented accent.

Hmm, its funny the kind of senses that come here, lol whats the difference London or USA? the west is the west full stop