Let's All Speak Pidgin Languages

My Iranian friend usually makes the mistake of referring to a male as 'she' and vice-versa. As usual, she offers an apology (which I do not consider necessary) and corrects her mistake. She had shared with me in the past that the Persian language had no gender designation and it got me thinking about the Yoruba language as well.  As we sat down over coffee yesterday with our Chinese and Indian friends, I realised how related my local Nigerian language was to theirs. One thing stood out for us - none of our local languages had any gender differentiation. 'He' or 'She' didn't exist in our languages, rather we had words to differentiate between an older person and a younger person as a sign of respect - a trait completely absent in the English language. The French language is even more complicated and interesting on the gender qualification as even things needed to be qualified as female or male.

We realised that languages had their different idiosyncrasies and probably that is why people find it more difficult to learn a new language as they grow older as they have become already set in their ways. The benefits of learning multiple languages abound but one that stands out is the research results stating that bilingual people stood a lower risk of the onset of Alzheimer's disease. As we discussed the benefits of learning multiple languages, I remembered that I had the opportunity to study the German language for one year  in high school and 3 years of French language taught by a lovely teacher. In retrospect, I wondered what impact those languages would have had in my life if I had taken the classes a bit more seriously. Anyway, moving on, I and my Iranian friend have chosen to learn a new language - Mandarin. So we begin classes with my Chinese friend sometime next week. I am excited as I can only say 'hello' in mandarin for now and I might share updates as I learn new words and progress to sentences.

However it turns out, I believe a language is a tool of communication and the most important thing is for those you are communicating with to understand what is being said. As beautiful as each language is, no one should be judged for speaking incorrect grammar especially when it is not a native tongue. I believe people make an effort to speak different languages and their efforts should be applauded. Just like Kunle Soriyan said ' Pidgin is a people's struggle with an original language'. So please let's allow people speak pidgin English, French, Yoruba, Persian, Chinese, Hausa etc confidently without shaming them while they develop themselves into better speakers.

Have a great weekend and Nǐ hǎo everyone.

Photo credit: Penultimate-word.com