Akomolede Yoruba

Fast filling........learning Yoruba with other kids from different countries is quite interesting and fun.

Lofiyesi ounje ti mo gbe kana (pay attention to the food on the fire)

This statement almost cost the whole house our breakfast. I went for fajr (early morning prayer) and when I stepped back into the house I noticed something was about to burn from the kitchen, so I bashed into the kitchen for a thorough investigation.

On getting to the kitchen, it was rice that was prepared for breakfast, and it was still cooking with a little water to dry, so I went back to the bedroom to inform Sweetness of my physical surveillance into her office.

Sweetness, the rice on the stove will be burning anytime. There is little or no water in it, and she responded with this furious voice, like hell will fall. Where is Abdurrahman? I asked him to pay attention to the rice before I stepped into the bathroom. How dare he leave the kitchen after giving him a direct instruction!

I told her he was not in the sitting room, nor was he in the kitchen, he was in the corridor, possibly doing his school assignment.

Abdurrahman!! Abdurrahman!!! Abdurrahman!!!! Ma!! Ma!! Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! He responded, knowing there was fire on the mountain from the tone of the call.

Yoruba mothers with different information from just calling your name. Different names for different occasions. When you are called by your oriki, you know you have done something good or you are about to be sent on an errand that is tedious. Some of the beauty of being a Yoruba.

Why did you defy my instruction with steps closer to Abdurrahman and reverse steps from Abdurrahman, I couldn’t but notice that the distance covered by sweetness is directly proportional to the reversed distance covered by Abdurrahman while the pace between the two subjects remains constant.

Didn’t I ask you to pay attention to what was on fire?

No ma, no ma with a cracking voice, eni kin nlo fi iyo si ni ma!!

Lo fi iyo si and lo fi iye si sound similar, but the implication of the latter could have cost the whole house our breakfast.
Lo fi iyo si means go and add salt, while lo fi iye si means go and pay attention……..

Sweetness had already added salt to the rice, so she was like, yeeeeeeeeh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So she ran to the kitchen to taste the rice, but luckily for the house, the salt Abdurrahman added was not enough to cost us breakfast, so we narrowly escaped skipping breakfast.
You might not be lucky like we are ……………….

And that’s why I am recommending you enrol your prince and princess with us at AKOMOLEDE YORUBA online class

© Yinka Quadry
2022

I asked him oya Wanpao!!! with a smile, and he still walked towards me like I was offering him an ice cream.

Do you want to try it out if your kids would sense danger or embrace the calling?

70 percent of Yorubas leaving outside the southwest Nigeria would just stare at you in wonder.

What's the meaning?

It is a common way to say someone does not understand jerk in Yoruba.

A statement to indicate how important language is and the danger of neglecting it's importance.

Ohhhh, I love this language called Yoruba it's deep.

I used this trick for other tribes who speak a little Yoruba just to test them.
Mostly they find it difficult to decode. Eventually when you split it into simpler words they burst into laughter.

For the benefits of those who are still wondering what's wanpao?

Six letters, four-syllables but probably the most dangerous literal meaning. However, the usage comes with a prefix kogbo.

And it changes the meaning somewhat.

Wanpao means "come let me kill you" sounds dangerous right?

That's the idea, to let you know how much of a Yoruba he understands.
If you tell someone to come let me kill you and he still follows you, you will want to repeat yourself to be sure he is not deaf and truly want you to kill him.

Or you will quickly realize that he understands nothing of Yoruba.

I won't be mad if someone speaks a foreign language with the same meaning and I smiled and follow him but I will feel embarrassed if he tells me wanpao and I still smile and follow him.

I want to avoid this warm embarrassment for my child.

I want to build my children's confidence in Yoruba

I want to preserve the Yoruba heritage

I want to take action right away.

Akomolede Yoruba online class got you covered.

Call/whatsapp 08133104430
08057741962

See fliers for more details.

©Yinka Quadry
2022

I used to blame parents whose kids can’t speak Yoruba until I moved my family to Abuja in 2011.

Back then when I see my uncle’s children struggling with speaking Yoruba I feel like: Is it to show off? Is it to prove that you lived in a better place? or Is your mother tongue too local for you to associate with? and a thousand more thoughts that ran through my mind.

I don’t know if this is peculiar to people in Ilorin but I know we view people’s intelligence by their ability to speak the Yoruba Ilorin. When we moved in to Ilorin in the late 80’s from lagos,

my peers back then will look at you like you are ode,(fool) just because you speak the lagos Yoruba (mide mide) while you marvel at the way the little 5year old child speaks big big Yoruba( I mean AGBAKAN YORUBA)

The way you hear a child less than 5years old describing his or her poo as (AGBAKAN ni Igbemi yi fa! Osi wa ko, ko jade laataaro) how do I even translate this? Bros look for Ilorin translator to help you biko!

My wife is a language freak, I know people who pick every single grammatical error in your speech but mostly they are particular about English.

However, someone who is particular about grammatical error in Yoruba! aah! gaskia I fear who no fear Kay in this regard.

Sometimes she makes me feel like I am an igbo speaking Yoruba, we will argue on words like eje and ege(blood) or ori and eri(head)

So she detests seeing a Yoruba child not able to speak in Yoruba not to mention not understanding the language patapata that one will just turn her off.

I just have to quickly mention her to let you know we both dislike having a child that will be speaking Yoruba like Chinese, despite our dislike, when we moved to Abuja we later understood why our Uncle's children can’t speak Yoruba

Abdurrahman was about 2years old when we moved to Abuja and the kind Yoruba wey dey the boy mouth reach to start Akomolede Yoruba for the children wey the our locality.

Other...........

I used to blame parents whose kids can’t speak Yoruba until I moved my family to Abuja in 2011.

Back then when I see my uncle’s children struggling with speaking Yoruba I feel like: Is it to show off? Is it to prove that you lived in a better place? or Is your mother tongue too local for you to associate with? and a thousand more thoughts that ran through my mind.

I don’t know if this is peculiar to people in Ilorin but I know we view people’s intelligence by their ability to speak the Yoruba Ilorin. When we moved in to Ilorin in the late 80’s from lagos,

my peers back then will look at you like you are ode,(fool) just because you speak the lagos Yoruba (mide mide) while you marvel at the way the little 5year old child speaks big big Yoruba( I mean AGBAKAN YORUBA)

The way you hear a child less than 5years old describing his or her poo as (AGBAKAN ni Igbemi yi fa! Osi wa ko, ko jade laataaro) how do I even translate this? Bros look for Ilorin translator to help you biko!

My wife is a language freak, I know people who pick every single grammatical error in your speech but mostly they are particular about English.

However, someone who is particular about grammatical error in Yoruba! aah! gaskia I fear who no fear Kay in this regard.

Sometimes she makes me feel like I am an igbo speaking Yoruba, we will argue on words like eje and ege(blood) or ori and eri(head)

So she detests seeing a Yoruba child not able to speak in Yoruba not to mention not understanding the language patapata that one will just turn her off.

I just have to quickly mention her to let you know we both dislike having a child that will be speaking Yoruba like Chinese, despite our dislike, when we moved to Abuja we later understood why our Uncle's children can’t speak Yoruba

Abdurrahman was about 2years old when we moved to Abuja and the kind Yoruba wey dey the boy mouth reach to start Akomolede Yoruba for the children wey the our locality.

Other parents in our area then will be marvelled each time he speaks, they will ask how come he can speak this much, and the language is now Yoruba!

Soon we were afflicted, yes to us (me and my wife) it was an affliction how come what we complained of others is what we found right under our noses.

This is how it began, each time he steps out to play with other children in the compound he blows them Yoruba and other kids didn’t understand. He quickly sensed there are people who didn’t understand Yoruba so he activated English 101 software.

This English 101 software act the same way a virus works, little by little this small boy started controlling the language we speak at home. He refused to speak Yoruba, we both continued to speak Yoruba to him but he only responded in English.

That was how he started losing his once cherished Yoruba, speaking it became distorted, you will be wondering if it is Yoruba or French he was speaking. He still understood it but speaking became something else.

When the other children came we fought it but the best we could achieve is that they understood the language from what we speak to them, but speaking Yoruba you had better let it slide because by the time they will finish telling you (omi ti ho) the water is boiling, the gas must have finished and the water and pot turned ashes.

This is a family who is intentional about their children understanding and speaking the Yoruba language and making efforts towards the goal and yet achieve little or no results.

As time went on, the younger ones have no interest in the language, if you speak to them, they don’t pay attention, why would they pay attention to the language when they don’t find anyway to use it.

School-English, School friends-English, neighbours-English, cartoons-English. So they didn’t see any reason for them to learn it.

We knew why they should learn, understand and speak their mother tongue, research has shown and even practical experience has also revealed that it improves their cognitive skills.

‘’The many cognitive benefits of learning languages are undeniable. People who speak more than one language have improved memory, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, enhanced concentration, ability to multitask, and better listening skills.

They switch between competing tasks and monitor changes in their environment more easily than monolinguals, as well as display signs of greater creativity and flexibility. If that weren’t enough, as we age, being bilingual or multilingual also helps to stave off mental aging and cognitive decline’’

We know the kids will connect better when they visit home,
we know it will help understand our culture and heritage,

we know it will help the kids improve their communication skills,
we know it will help them improve their vocabulary

we know it will boost their confidence

we know it will help in their decision making

we know it will help them understands norms

we know it provides numerous opportunities

we know it could save their lives someday.

The children don’t know any of these reasons but we do and that’s why it is our responsibility as parent/guardian to ensure that our children can Speak, read and understand their mother tongue.

We can’t just give up.
Not when we have Akomolede Yoruba online school !!!!
You can now enrol your children.
See fliers for details.

If you feel the same about your language we have got you covered.
*igala
*Nupe
*Ibira
*ibo
*Hausa
*French

© Yinka Quadry
2022

Our Yoruba kids are having a nice time learning their mother tongue.

Don't wait until Abisola can not talk to great grandma due to language barrier. Don't wait for Olayinka to start paying Oyinbo to teach him Yoruba in the near future. Take action! The time is now!!!

Are you a Yoruba parent who wishes that your children do not loose contact with your heritage?

Do you want them to learn to speak, read and write Yoruba perfectly and your busy schedules isn't affording you the time to teach them?

Let us do that for you!!!

Contact 08057741962 or 08133104430 for more enquiry.

Anticipate our opening.