You know, I’ve really been trying. Every time I’m in front of my home computer, I pop in Rosetta Stone and try to learn Mandarin. I wanted to learn the language so that I can communicate with my sister-in-law Pam and her family, as well as to show respect to my brother. But I just can’t seem to generate the interest. And I think I know the reason why. It’s because Mandarin is not Yoruba.
When I was learning Yoruba, the interest was natural. Every time I learned how to say something, it reminded me of listening to my parents and their friends talk in Yoruba. These memories encouraged me to learn more and more, so that maybe I could speak it like they do. I don’t get that feeling from learning Mandarin. There are no memories I can relate to, no people around me that have ever spoken that language. That makes it not only harder to learn, but harder to keep interested as well. There are some Nigerians that live in Smalltown. One was a cashier at the store where I bought my new shoes. When he saw my name he smiled and started speaking in Yoruba. Thankfully he spoke basic, so I was able to keep up. But how cool would it have been to speak fluently? How cool would it be to carry a real conversation in Yoruba and be able to actually feel the culture through its words? See what I mean?
You know, I’ve stated several times that my trip to Nigeria was ruined by my parents beefing. That’s true. But one thing they couldn’t ruin was the environment. Going to sleep and waking up in an eternally warm climate. Waking up to the generators and the rooster’s crow. The food, the simple life, the… everything! The two videos I uploaded of looking out of my bedroom window and listening to a political conversation with my dad's relatives consistently give me a warm feeling. Despite the family issues, I really enjoyed Nigeria and I’d like to go back someday. Wouldn’t it be great to go there speaking English and pretend not to speak Yoruba, just to hear how people will talk around me went they think I don’t understand? Hee hee!
What’s funny is that there is no Rosetta Stone for Yoruba, yet I learned some of the language through a cheap book and some audio mp3s. I picked up the book the other day and it felt as if I had never put it down. So I’m gonna continue it my Yoruba learning and put the Mandarin and Hindi languages on the back burner. It’s a wonderful feeling to learn the language I was brought up on but never taught. Maybe after I learn how to speak Yoruba fluently, I can start to learn other languages without distraction.
When I was learning Yoruba, the interest was natural. Every time I learned how to say something, it reminded me of listening to my parents and their friends talk in Yoruba. These memories encouraged me to learn more and more, so that maybe I could speak it like they do. I don’t get that feeling from learning Mandarin. There are no memories I can relate to, no people around me that have ever spoken that language. That makes it not only harder to learn, but harder to keep interested as well. There are some Nigerians that live in Smalltown. One was a cashier at the store where I bought my new shoes. When he saw my name he smiled and started speaking in Yoruba. Thankfully he spoke basic, so I was able to keep up. But how cool would it have been to speak fluently? How cool would it be to carry a real conversation in Yoruba and be able to actually feel the culture through its words? See what I mean?
You know, I’ve stated several times that my trip to Nigeria was ruined by my parents beefing. That’s true. But one thing they couldn’t ruin was the environment. Going to sleep and waking up in an eternally warm climate. Waking up to the generators and the rooster’s crow. The food, the simple life, the… everything! The two videos I uploaded of looking out of my bedroom window and listening to a political conversation with my dad's relatives consistently give me a warm feeling. Despite the family issues, I really enjoyed Nigeria and I’d like to go back someday. Wouldn’t it be great to go there speaking English and pretend not to speak Yoruba, just to hear how people will talk around me went they think I don’t understand? Hee hee!
What’s funny is that there is no Rosetta Stone for Yoruba, yet I learned some of the language through a cheap book and some audio mp3s. I picked up the book the other day and it felt as if I had never put it down. So I’m gonna continue it my Yoruba learning and put the Mandarin and Hindi languages on the back burner. It’s a wonderful feeling to learn the language I was brought up on but never taught. Maybe after I learn how to speak Yoruba fluently, I can start to learn other languages without distraction.
I agree about living abroad where the climate is nice and people live simple life. Americans do not realize just how stressed out and spoiled they are. It was moving abroad which taught me this, and I would happily trade for simple life.
ReplyDeleteAs for learning Mandarin, I have also been working on this. It is slow yet I have made some progress using children videos: The River Dragon King is the most efficient. It is too bad they only made one. The other is Kai-lan.
Children's videos is a good idea, Trix. Once I'm done with Yoruba I plan to go all in with Mandarin, and I like the idea of children's videos combined with Rosetta Stone. Nollywood movies really help me out with Yoruba, so I'll also look for movies in Mandarin where they don't talk too fast. Mas despacio, por favor...
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