My Journey of learning the Yoruba language

E kaaro, E kaasan, E kuurole.

I want to share with you the journey i took in learning the Yoruba language. The good parts, the bad parts and the STRESSFUL parts hehe. P.s i will be writing in Yoruba in some parts of this post.

We all know Yoruba is a very difficult language to learn if you are not raised in a area where Yoruba is not used. For me, Ah! it was not easy o! i spent so much time Reading, and writing and pronouncing over and over and over. Mo feran ede Yoruba, but i have to admit, it is not an easy language to learn. let me just tell u about the Yoruba language for those who no sabi.. hehe

Yoruba is a Language of over 30 million people. Yoruba language is used in different parts of the world, not only Nigeria as some people think! lol Yoruba is a tonal language, which makes it much more difficult to learn than other languages. The three tones in Yoruba are “Do Re Mi” which look like this \ _ / (Do=\) (Re=_ ) (Mi=/) WITHOUT the brackets and = sign. The middle tone (re) is  just basically normal tone used in English.  The (Do) tone is a lower tone, and the (mi) is a higher tone. Yoruba also has its own alphabet. (a b d e e f g gb h i j k l m n o o p r s s t u w y) Unfortunately i do not have the Yoruba keyboard to write the Yoruba alphabet with the tonal marks but as you can see, it has some missing letters like “c” “z” and also has 2 of the same letters like “o, s, e” which with the tonal marks, gives it a individual sound. Also unlike the English alphabet it has “gb”. Anyways, other than having different letters, Yoruba also has several words that can mean so many different things depending on how you pronounce it which is VERY important!!. this is what makes it difficult for people to learn. Yoruba is also a language of Respect! You should always show respect to elders when using Yoruba, for example, you shouldn’t say “oshayyyyyyyy” to someone who is way older than u! lool! u should greet parents and elders in the right manor, “Ese ma” or “e se pupo sa” with a little bow down is fine. To show Respect. Many yoruba youths have started using slang and all but i personally use traditional Yoruba. I would only use slang for joking around with friends.

Next i want to let everyone know my own journey in learning Yoruba. Listen well well :p I chose to learn this Language After Failing in Swahili lol So i feel in Love with the Yoruba Language after hearing it so many times. I started a long time ago, and omg! it is not easy atall! who ever says it is easy, ah! i don’t agree! lol mo ri o po lo po isoro. It is very time consuming, and i would say that someone who is always busy, probably shouldnt try this language loool!! When i started out learning Yoruba, i had alot of free time and that is why i became better in the Language.

I was soo vexed at times because it was like every time i learned something, i would forget it after a week, and when i tried to remember something and got it wrong, i would get angry at my self be like “ah!! mtchewwww” lol but gradually i became better and better. I used a very traditional method of learning which is very very difficult but gave me the ability to Read and write in Yoruba very well. The pronouncing  came later. When people started seeing me Writing in Yoruba they were like “ah ah! who is teaching u sef!” lol many people got vexed and some got excited. no one seemed to believe i taught myself at home but oh well! abeg! make u no vex lol thats people for u.  lol

Yoruba also has a lot of nice proverbs, my favorite one is “Ife l’akoja ofin”  it is a very short but sweet proverb.

I am very excited and happy about learning Yoruba and proud of it because it is one of my great achievements and i didn’t think it was possible. I love to teach myself everything, for me, its the best way i can learn something. So weather it is African history, culture or Language, I will put a lot of work into it until i can pat myself on the back and say i did it hehe

My advice to anyone who wants to learn Yoruba, is to get FREE time! lol its no easy o.

Well i hope you enjoyed reading about my Yoruba learning journey. The next task i am giving myself is to learn the Igbo Language or Hausa. That will probably be later on in the year. i’ll keep you posted hehe.

thanks for reading. Ese Pupo! O digbose