US sends citizens to Nigeria to study Yoruba in University of Ibadan
- The United States of America sends some of its students to University of Ibadan (UI) every year to learn the Yoruba language
- This could be seen as a move to enable the students whose course of study is on the language have a practical experience
- According to Oye Taiwo, a Yoruba lecturer in UI, the students spend months in the country as they live in an environment that encourages the language
Language is not just a vital means of communication, it is an important marker of identity and a power tool of socialisation.
Yoruba language like other indigenous languages around the world are losing their touch to modernisation. In this way, what ought to be a powerful tool of identification is fast losing its hold.
This is why language scholars are of the very opinion that language learning is as important an empowerment as technological advancement.
Some Nigerian-Americans of Yoruba heritage are taking up this challenge to learn their language at the University of Ibadan on an exchange programme basis as could be seen in a BBC Yoruba viral video.
According to one of the lecturers at the university, Oye Taiwo, the US government yearly sends students to the university centre to learn the language.
He said when the programme started nine years ago, the first set of Nigerian-Americans that came spent nine months. Others after them spent varied months, with the present spending just two months.
The lecturer said that during their stay in the institution, they are not only taught in the university, but they are also lodged with Yoruba families on campus so they can live in an environment that encourages the practical learning of the language.
In the video, the foreign students took turns to introduce themselves all in correct Yoruba as they also played popular Yoruba games where they have to interact in the language.
Oye said he hopes Yoruba learning is taken seriously and that the situation does not get worse to the extent that outside user of the language will be the people teaching the original owner of the language.
He described that scenario is second of colonisation that he strongly hoped would never happen.
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Source: Legit.ng
