Some days ago, I was at the mall with my family. It was on a Sunday so there were many other families at the mall probably to relax before the workdays commence. I noticed a beautiful small family just behind us. They had two kids, a boy and a girl; the girl being younger. I found the young girl really cute so I looked back and smiled at her many times. Then I heard her voice, she was telling her brother “kuro ni beyen” which means “leave that place”. I immediately looked back to smile at her again and what I saw scared me. Her mother’s palms were on her mouth trying to conceal whatever other things the poor girl wanted to say. Her mother’s face was flustered, clearly filled with embarrassment. Her father was more of in a shock. Her brother was confused. Her mother then said “Nicky, how many times will I tell you to always speak in English? Who even taught you that?” By “that” she meant Yoruba Language, I mean her heritage. By the way, I later discovered that the young girl’s name is Adenike but they call her Nicky for reasons best known to them.

That moment, I asked myself. How many Yoruba parents pass down the language to their children? What do we find so embarrassing about our language? Why can we speak it and our children can’t? Why are we running away from our heritage? Why don’t we value what we have? Why do we feel the need to blend into another man’s culture and totally ignore ours?
When I was growing up, I was taught “A aja”, “B bata”, “D doje”, I was taught how to speak the right Yoruba words. This is the foundation of my intellect today. I think in Yoruba Language. I have written a lot of difficult exams and what has helped me is that I read and understand in Yoruba Language and then translate it to English before putting it down. I am not saying that learning the English Language is bad; many people wouldn’t read this if it wasn’t written in English anyways. All I am saying is that our children have to also learn our language just as we were taught.

I came across these books that can teach our children the basics of Yoruba language and when I spoke with the writer, she said many schools, and many parents have rejected the idea of teaching nursery kids Yoruba because “it will spoil their English Language”. She said on the other hand, the books have thrived well abroad as some whites and Nigerians in diaspora find it very useful. Shouldn’t we be more concerned about English spoiling “our Yoruba Language?” When your kids are exposed to their language at the early stage of life, it won’t only help their English Language; it will also equip them for other things in life.

These books are tailor-made for young minds as it is filled with pictures which they can colour to create fun for them while learning. Buy these books today, buy for your children buy for your nieces and nephews, buy for your students, and buy for yourself. We all have to work together to ensure that Yoruba Language doesn’t go into extinct. It’s on you, it’s on me…It’s on US!

This is a general problem many unreasonable nigerian parents have.
But u will see yorubas saying they dont do it.

The Nigeria's school's curriculum is a deterrent to language development. This is the problem with many School proprietors who are of Yoruba descent and don't dim it fit to know the importance of one's language. It is indeed an eye opener. I hope Yoruba language will be sustained.

Today is International Mother Language day.It is really amazing how we can value other people's culture over ours and how our culture can be embarrassing to us. The author of the Yoruba books has not still been able to sell most.I hope we can all get to the point where we can boldly speak our language anywhere and showcase our culture anywhere we find ourselves but this won't happen until we realise that the greatest asset we have as a nation is our Language.