Back then, in my first year at the university, I had to study French as a course.It was going well until we were asked to present ourselves in French. Although French is not my favorite language
to learn; my favorite is Spanish because I love how they speak the language as if someone is eating hot, spicy chicken.
I stood in front of my class introducing myself in French because it carries a high mark for our examination grade. I had already practiced this a thousand times and I was confident. However, when I saw the Head of the Student Department sitting there, I started to fumble. I couldn't remember what was coming out of my mouth.Because I know the HOD is a no-nonsense person, my coursemate and I were all shocked to see her in that presentation because she hardly has time for us. I was shaking.
I thank God that every day the lecturer in question was a very kind woman who assisted us; otherwise, I am sure I would've failed the course.
Another scenario that happened to me was trying to explain a particular place to a Hausa bike man who lacks knowledge of speaking English. Our country is blessed with different languages but also plagued by bad leadership, but that's not the issue. It turned out that I didn't know how to speak Hausa, even when negotiating the price or providing the exact location because I couldn't pronounce it well for him.We ended up rounding the area multiple times. When I finally called someone for direction assistance, the individual said I made a mistake in the pronunciation and explained it better for the bike guy. I ended up paying more than I was meant to pay because even though we did settle on a price, I didn't understand what was said. It was another person who clarified what he had said, and I ended up feeling cheated.
Since then, I have had a few friends from the north who taught me their language.
Image above is AI GENERATED.