Yes, the Nigerians speak English. We just can not understand them, yet. They can understand us if we speak with them one-on-one and enunciate very carefully and speak slowly. They can also understand us from the pulpit if our speech is succinct, slow and clearly spoken with no Americanisms included. Funny thing. April Fool's Day is April Fool's Day in Nigeria. They think me having 62 birthdays on April 1st, in two weeks is really funny.
The English issue is two fold. There are over 250 tribal dialects in Nigeria. Two of them are the dominant cultural languages. They are Yoruba and Enugu. They love their languages and love to speak them. English is a "school learned language" and is spoken with British pronunciation laid on top of their native tongue. They speak very, very softly with almost no effort to enunciate or speak clearly. They are a very gentle, happy people without most of the "things" we think make us happy at home. Many Nigerians live on $1.00-$2.00 per day. Think about it. In spite of what we see as "lack", they are extremely happy. Those in the Church and those who join the Church recognize the tremendous blessings in the Gospel Message...."Forever Families", is just one principle they love. Happy Sabbath.
No comments:
Post a Comment