Ngugi wa Thiong’o, a giant in African Literature said it best,
“Take away our language and we will forget who we are.”
Language not only is a means of communication, it also holds significant cultural values and heritage. For many, relocating abroad seems like a dream.
The excitement of throwing yourself into an environment of abundant opportunity, getting to learn new cultures and areas.
However, what you don’t realize is that you lose yourself in these processes. By fully immersing yourself in a foreign culture, you lose a lot of your own.
The second time I went back home, I found myself amongst some old classmates, chatting over a meal. For the first time, I felt like people were speaking our local dialect too fast. Some words skipped past me to my disbelief, a language that I had even competed in at a national level.
When my turn came to contribute to the conversation, my words came out slow and calculated, weakening the tempo of the socializing. “You speak slowly,” one commented over the phone during a conversation.
Making overseas your home mostly comes to the detriment of your tongue. You break it downand force it to speak with foreign affection. And the longer you reside abroad, working, runningerrands, finding community, the more that culture slips away.
How will your children raised abroad learn your language? In one generation, a vital part of your culture may be eroded. Many grow up to say, “I can understand, but I can’t speak it. ”
And with the hustle and bustle of life, it becomes hard to commit to teaching them the language. However, all is not lost. Here are a few solutions to maintaining your language across borders;
1. Reading books and writing
-Reading books in your local language helps with keeping the structure and proficiency of your language. Your understanding will never waver and it can boost your grammar and vocabulary as well.
-Through reading, may it be non-fiction, newspapers, magazines, or even fiction, one can learn about past and current events from their local region. Social media may not be sufficient or accurate enough.
-Fiction has the power to remove you from wherever you are to the world of the author. Local fiction grants you the opportunity to visit home, walk the streets of your hometown, no matter how far removed you are.
-Writing is a form of communication that will force you to mentally uphold the frame of your local language. Sharing your writing may even have a bonus effect of attracting community as others read what you have to say.
2. Watching movies and shows
-While tuning into local shows may not offer a grammatically correct and structurally sound way of keeping up with the language, it will definitely open your perspective on the place you call home.
-Local media tends to resonate well with the general public, and some movies are even powerful enough to bring nations together.
-The fictional movie, ‘The Lion King’, released in 1994, was a global success in the film industry despite its fictional angle on Africa.
-There was the use of local language in the film in the song, for example, ‘Hakuna Matata’ which in Swahili translates to ‘No worries’ or ‘No issues.’
-There were also characters such as ‘Simba’ and ‘Rafiki’ which carry meaning in Swahili, a language widely spoken across East and Central Africa.
3. Keeping in touch with people back home
-Previous generations had to settle for calling cards while living abroad, if they wanted to call anyone back home.
-In today’s digital age, we are blessed to be able to keep in contact through phone calls that rely on an internet connection.
-Nowadays even families can bond over the phone and keep in touch more often.
-Consistently holding conversations in your mother tongue carries a lot of linguistic benefits, especially for those who don’t go home often.
-It keeps your tongue void of foreign affection and pure.
4. Diasporic community
-Finding diasporic community abroad may not be easy, but it’s possible. Having someone to speak your language with helps boost not only your language but your social life as well.
-From this community, you can uphold your culture and feel just as if you are at home.
-After all, home is where the heart is.