Many times I come across, some women scolding their children about speaking English all the time at home instead of their native language.

It has become like a daily occurrence, even in public places, you hear them asking the child to say things in whatever native language they speak!

Then I am compelled to ask, why is this so? Is English not the world’s number one language? Is whatever native language they speak recognized globally?

In Nigeria we have more 300 hundred indigenous languages, but the English language remains our official language, which means English comes first when it comes to communication!

And then when you ask them why they are bent on forcing their children to speak their native language, they really would not come up with any reasonable answer.

It is a common fact, that many Nigerians do not speak correct English language, even in high places; sometimes you are tempted to even correct the person.

So if English is the official language we use in communicating with one another, why force a child to speak his own native language? There are other things to teach a child, like the power of sorry, please and thank you!

When the child succeeds in learning how to speak his or her native language, is that what they will use to communicate when they eventually face the entire world?

There are so many questions to be asked really. The man from japan speaks Japanese; because that is the only language they have.

Same goes to the man from France; they only have French language, no native languages. They communicate in French.

If there is any need for them to communicate in another language like English they get a translator! They do not bother about speaking English or not.

So why are we bothered about our children speaking English all time when they actually need it! Is it the native language they will need in future?

Is it the native language they will need to communicate when they encounter someone from Britain or America, or France or China, certainly no!

This trend has to stop; it is of no use to these children who already suffer from their teacher’s bad English in school!

I went to my tailor one certain time, I had gone to her place to collect my clothes and there I met her children, who come straight to her shop after school.

One of them (they are two) the younger one was telling their mum how she forgot to take her lunch to school.

Their mother was like, ‘’but I told you to make that you didn’t forget it,’’ and the little girl went ‘’no you didn’t told me.’’

I looked at her mother to see if she noticed the wrong grammar, but of course she didn’t! How could she have noticed when it is native language all the way?

If that little girl was being taught how to speak good English from day one, both at home and in school, her English wouldn’t have been that bad!

Mothers and teachers have a very vital role to play in the lives of the children as regard speaking good English; no mother should discourage their children from speaking correct English.

The world is evolving every day, and nobody knows where they will end up eventually when they grow up, and to move ahead we need communication.

And we can only communicate with rest of the world in English language, not in native languages. It will also pay us if we learn how to speak good English too.

When I say it sometimes, people will ask me ‘’who English help?'' Well, English has helped a lot of people that you and I know, like professor Wole Soyinka!

Source: http://www.chichiuncensored.com