Isn't It A Shame When You Can't Speak Your Mother Tongue?!

well thats not always the childrens fault, if the parents don't  teach them then oh well

what is the big deal its nothing to feel ashamed about its not your fault at least ure learning it-----I'm yoruba and i rarely get a chance or feel the need to speak it even in my villa

I bet to disagree, what has mother tongu gotta give you, will u go to bank with ya mother tongue and will be given money, my friend, english is the national language, and that is hat is important, you are able to speak yoruba and lousy in communicating to and with peple out of your village and clan, then, what is the usefulness?

I support u 100% because other nationals re proud of their dialect, bt Nigerians ll like to form with grammars. Look @ the Ronaldos (football star) of this world the communicate in the brazilian stuff

IT'S A WELL KNOWN FACT that nigerians in america aer the ones who try to fit the most, blacks in general like to ape europeans customs but let's admit that naija peep are champs , I got a story for you, One of my uncle who had a small immigration problem hired a  lawyer who happened to be nigerian with HUGE TRIBAL MARKS, I won't tell you her tribe .Once during the trial one of  the judges from the jury asked her if she was african probably because her name sounds exotic  guess what she got an african name ,She was furious and denied it even if it was obvious ,she called us bad names and she didn't want to be associate with her own people, If you see an african in a movie or something and the person don't claim his ethicity then he's nigerian , believe me,look at chamillionnaire ,he looks nigerian but he never admitted it ,too busy to ape akatas,godfrey is nigerian too ,again he won't claim it and he is the first to make fun of africans,baskett ball player iguodala same thing, many are married to akatas as well , everybody knows that akon is from senegal ,he claims it proudly and even shows off with a senegalese flag,djimon hounsou is proud of his country benin ,everybody knows that.   And the list goes on, I 've even seen a nigerian girl claiming to be jamaican she carried the jamaican flag during the carnival,her name is funmi ,i knew she was nigerian,she just told me that caribeans are cool, again nigerians are very SMART,we are among the most educated immigrants even in the us but I wish we were proud of who we are for real,

@post
It is not a shame, it all depends on many factors,

I absolutely know wht you're talking about! Those type of people annoy me out of my skin!!

I remember once when me and my bros went to Madrid 4 holiday, and we met this mumu, idiotalized foolish + STUPID boy straight 4rom Naija! and Pure Benin! who was there deceiving some bunch of yeye oyinbo girls that he was 4rom Jamaica! And that he once met 50cent at d market. _{Just imagine!}And d dumb white girls were believing him _{( Is it just me or can this oyinbo girls be extremely dumb sometimes?? It's sooo easy 4 Nigerian guys especially, to fool them!)} . I mean u should have heard his accent! -- Pure Benin pikin! yeye boy wehn his auntie dey there dey suffer to make ends meet so that dey can return to Nigeria and have a better life, d idiot dey there dey fool white girls!

we were all sitting there, and I was laughing my ass off, he asked my bro a question in his "Jamaican accent" I trust my bro, he simply replied : " Look,  guy,  If I slaaap u, u go tell me whether I resemble white chick 4 your face!" -- Gosh, it was very funny.

Bringing me to wht Masawa said. It's really a shame that some people can be like this, but then again he is d only Nigerian I have met that was like that about this whole language\Nigeria stuff. We Nigerians are usually very proud of where we come from and our Language.

@ topic: no, its not a shame in my book.

every single day I see and relate with people who don't speak their mother tongue.

Does Obama speak his own mother tongue?

In addition, most Jamaicans speak creole, their own lingua franca. We all know the crime statistics for them.

Not speaking your mother tongue is a problem only if your social interaction is limited to people from your area. They are the ones who will try to put you down for not being able to speak it.

As I always say; if you speak it, fine. If you don't speak it, fine. Since I'm not a professional translator making money from people speaking some languages (or selling language material), I don't give myself a headache over who is or isnt speaking.

oh, ok.

@poster
OMG I'm in the same situation
I spoke perfect Yoruba but after staying in America for so long I can't speak it anymore
My parents have spoken Yoruba to me all my life so I don't understand how come I sound soooo stupid when I speak it.
I get so embarrassed when I hear little children speaking Yoruba

I wish I could speak it so I can speak it to my kids

didn't know you have kids.  you changed your profile pic  .
why is it important that you speak it to your kids, if they don't need it

same here, even if i'm just conversational in it and not fluent, i'll be happy.

of course. it really sucks when all my friends speak their mother tongue and i can't. even though i can't speak igbo, and can understand. i'm only grateful for that because some igbo assume that if you're born outside of nigeria, you can't speak or understand so they start talking bad about you. i just let them keep thinking like that until one day i'll let them know what's up.

Kai motunrayo. I am SURE Ive lived here longer than you. *shakes finger*

OMG! Yes there are.  I personally know at least 20.  Mexican Americans to be specific.  If you want to get all technical.