Ikini
Greetings
Starting Yoruba has been very exciting. Our first lesson was in greeting other people. A very apt topic for the first lesson I think. Many of us had turned up 30mins early to the lesson because the SOAS timetable had said that it begun at 6pm and not 6.30pm. My Yoruba teacher had said to me before that he would see me at 6.30pm, but you know when you think someone's either mistaken or being a typical African man.
Yeh well, either way he's not entirely a typical African, the class really did start at 6.30pm. And he's a really nice guy. Laughs to himself even when the class doesn't get the joke. It's nice. It's good to have a lighthearted lecturer.
In my class we have many girls. In fact only 2 guys. One's Cameroonian and the other is a Nigerian by descent British lad. Much of the girls are also Nigerian by descent, including myself. Those who aren't are American, Caribbean, Chinese, English and Scandinavian. I would say that's a pretty diverse class really.
It was interesting though to see how many of us were there because I parents didn't teach us when we were young. According to Akin, my teacher that is the most consistent demographic over the years. So, if you've got a little child and you speak a language other than the one they learn at school as part of the nations lingua franca, please, I beg of you teach your child that language. It will first of all give them an edge on others on their CV and second of all help them develop their brains to learn other languages. Before you know it you've a multilingual child being paid by the UN for that very skill.
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I didn't go to lesson 2 later in the week because I had to play conkers with City boys and rugby lads. So this week I have learned:
E kaaaro, E kaasan, E kaale
Emi ni Charlene