Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Thought For Today

chidi, this is a topic we've heard about for so many years. with it the belief, as far as i know, that children of an early age learn better in their native tongues, their family tongues. foreign language instruction should come later, like high school. i think in at least parts of senegal and elsewhere that is the practice.

i'm part of the generation who believes the more languages we acquire, the better

unlike american firsters whose insularity and ignorance drive their thinking.

but it is a mistake to think of the u.s. as insularly encompassed by english. there are vast swathes of many places where spanish is the current language. i invite you to walk through queens some day; or even the bronx or harlem where you'll hear more spanish than english, where the shops are all in spanish, the goods are sold to the taste of the dominicans and equadorians etc, like the puerto ricans of my youth

and southwest united states is similar; california is similar.

it is a fight to resist the dominance of supremacists at every level, including language and culture.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

---

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 7, 2023 12:02 AM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Thought For Today

 

As we all know, "Language shapes cultures and peoples, it means identity, it is a "social bond" and central for any relationship." ( From this curiously interesting article " In the beginning was the word" from which one deduces the absolute necessity (imperative) of sustaining, studying, developing, utilising, and promoting our ( the world's) African indigenous languages

On Sunday, 1 January 2023 at 10:11:41 UTC+1 chidi...@gmail.com wrote:

If one is Chinese, German, English or French, there would be no COMPELLING need to teach one's children or wards a foreign language because unlike in Africa, those children and wards can pursue their academic and professional training to the highest level using their native languages.

So in Africa, it makes more sense allowing these children and wards to get fluent in the(foreign)languages of professional and academic instructions in their locations.

I was brought up in an Igbo enclave and so learned English as a second language. 

As a child I wasn't fluent in English and had to suffer immensely during further academic and professional pursuits (which are only in English language)

I wonder why native languages activists in Africa do not take this pertinent perspective into consideration.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

--
Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet, IIM Professional Fellow, MIT Chief Data Officer Ambassador and Editorial Adviser at News Updates (https://updatesonnews.substack.com)

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/6d125079-5652-42e8-84fc-8ff6c7f079dbn%40googlegroups.com.