Why I want to speak English like the Queen

I dream of one day speaking English like the English do and Russian like the Russians do since I speak Ibibio like the Ibibios.

If we had a landline in my family home and you were to call to speak to me and my father happens to pick up, chances are that both of you for a while would be in a situation where you do not understand what one person wants from the other.


I know how it feels for a language to be bastardized just because someone wants to learn it. I had to learn to introduce myself using my middle name which in my culture is actually my own father’s name because I did not like the way my non-Ibibio friends unknowingly bastardized my name when they tried to pronounce it. For me “Nnn-ye-ke-aba-see” was quite baby talk. So I decided one day to start introducing myself by my father’s name. My family –immediate and extended do not know that I now answer my father’s name but I had to do that to give my non-Ibibio friends something to call me.
So I resolved that whatever language I learn in the world, I will always try to learn to speak such a language like the natives do.

Recently, there has been this debate  by some intelligent people, saying it is mental slavery when we try to speak English like the British. They even make fun of Nigerians who want to speak English like the British. They ask, "are there Britons that speak Nigerian languages like us?" It is not like I have any answer to the proponents of this debate, I have questions too for them...

I grew up among the Ibibios and I learnt to speak Ibibio like the natives. If I had grown up in the US and learnt Ibibio but spoke it with an American accent, would the Ibibio natives not correct every word I pronounced wrongly when I speak in town hall meetings? Would they not laugh at my pronunciation of their simple words?

Is it not arrogance that makes us to think that we can learn a man’s language and speak it the way we want? Don’t we know that when we are arrogant like that, we destroy the very spiritual tool with which a people relate with each other? Don’t we know that for the not-so strong languages, we make them go extinct? Don’t we know that we can destroy communities and histories when languages become extinct?

It is not as if to say that every one of us must suffer at twisting our tongues to sound like the natives of all the languages we speak. It is hard work I know and usually we don't like hardwork. Yet, we must learn to twist our tongues if we can. Even if we do not want to twist ours because it is hard work, we must not make fun of those who try to twist theirs because this matter should be a thing of ‘to each his own!’

For the preservation of communities and the art of languages, it is necessary that we speak languages like the natives do. But again I say, to each his own…