1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,560 My brother knows Yoruba but he can't speak it. 2 00:00:08,560 --> 00:00:09,560 That doesn't make sense. 3 00:00:09,560 --> 00:00:10,840 My brother knows Yoruba. 4 00:00:10,840 --> 00:00:18,880 I said, I said, I said, I don't know. 5 00:00:18,880 --> 00:00:22,720 My brother knows Yoruba but he can't speak it. 6 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:32,720 I was trying to say, my brother knows Yoruba but he doesn't speak it. 7 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:43,560 And that's because he got so upset at how much people made fun of him that he just decided 8 00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:46,160 he was never going to speak it again. 9 00:00:46,160 --> 00:00:49,640 And I just think, I don't fuck with that. 10 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:51,200 I just don't. 11 00:00:51,200 --> 00:01:00,080 I feel like there is a lot of people that can't speak their language but to varying 12 00:01:00,080 --> 00:01:05,160 extents, like there are people that can speak it but don't have full mastery of it. 13 00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:10,000 And obviously the only way you can get full mastery is to communicate more. 14 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:19,040 And I just think we place too much importance on how words sound when we still know what 15 00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:20,040 they mean. 16 00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:25,080 So as far as I'm concerned, as long as you understand what someone is saying, then however 17 00:01:25,080 --> 00:01:29,480 they sound can just be qualified as an accent. 18 00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:30,480 Right? 19 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:33,000 Yes, yes, yes. 20 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:38,880 And you know, if we go with that, then there are different accents all over the world with 21 00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:39,880 each language. 22 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:44,760 So it's not really something to shame other people about. 23 00:01:44,760 --> 00:01:52,320 Yeah, it's just like imagine if you went to the US and then you were speaking to, I don't 24 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:58,080 know, a barista and then you ask them for coffee. 25 00:01:58,080 --> 00:01:59,600 That's what baristas do, right? 26 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:00,600 They serve coffee. 27 00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:01,600 Am I right? 28 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:02,600 Yeah, I think so. 29 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:04,400 Yeah, I hope I'm right. 30 00:02:04,400 --> 00:02:07,880 Like if a person starts making fun of your Nigerian accent, would that be cool? 31 00:02:07,880 --> 00:02:10,040 Like do you think that would be fun? 32 00:02:10,040 --> 00:02:12,200 No, that wouldn't be fun. 33 00:02:12,200 --> 00:02:15,960 That would be a very bad experience. 34 00:02:15,960 --> 00:02:17,440 You know, shaming sucks, right? 35 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:26,840 I think that people do it because they feel like their language is just closely rooted 36 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:28,560 to their identity. 37 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:32,080 Their language is closely rooted to them as people. 38 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:38,160 And so when they hear something that sounds different or they hear something that just 39 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:44,040 sounds like it's not exactly them, right? 40 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:50,200 The way they speak it, the way they were taught to speak it, if there's another pronunciation, 41 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:59,640 another construction of sentences, they just feel like it is against them because it becomes 42 00:02:59,640 --> 00:03:00,640 different. 43 00:03:00,640 --> 00:03:01,640 They become different. 44 00:03:01,640 --> 00:03:02,640 Yeah. 45 00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:10,720 We're, saying all these things, do you think about sometimes how important is it really 46 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:15,160 that we're able to speak our mother tongue? 47 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:23,560 Language is something that is associated with who we are, you know, as two Nigerians, right? 48 00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:26,560 Our languages are so important to who we are. 49 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:33,440 It also represents, you know, a viewpoint of where we have been throughout history. 50 00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:39,280 Well, the problem with what you're saying now is, okay, we have 530 different languages 51 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:41,280 in Nigeria, right? 52 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:46,680 And like, if everything you're saying about language being who we are and being so core 53 00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:48,920 to our identity, right? 54 00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:58,080 If everything that you're saying along those lines is true, then like, we have 530 plus 55 00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:09,000 different people living in one country, like under one set of laws, under one single constitution. 56 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:12,520 How like, is that good? 57 00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:17,160 Well, obviously, it hasn't worked out very well. 58 00:04:17,160 --> 00:04:20,000 Yeah, not so far. 59 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:21,360 It hasn't been good, you know. 60 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:25,320 So, do you know that there was a world mother tongue day? 61 00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:28,800 21st of February. 62 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:32,080 World mother language slash mother tongue. 63 00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:33,080 Mother language. 64 00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:35,080 Who the hell says mother tongue. 65 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:39,480 But yeah, world mother tongue day. 66 00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:41,760 21st of February. 67 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:42,760 Have you ever celebrated? 68 00:04:42,760 --> 00:04:43,760 No, I have not. 69 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:47,360 You don't just like speak Igbo. 70 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:50,280 Just go on speaking. 71 00:04:50,280 --> 00:04:53,000 We go on speaking to everybody. 72 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:54,920 But no, no, no, I haven't. 73 00:04:54,920 --> 00:05:02,440 Actually, I wasn't aware of it till we started, you know, discussing this conversation. 74 00:05:02,440 --> 00:05:11,280 So I think it's cool, but I also, I think that it doesn't really affect us here. 75 00:05:11,280 --> 00:05:12,280 Why? 76 00:05:12,280 --> 00:05:14,600 We have 530 mother tongues. 77 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:20,800 No, what I mean is our day to day, you know, we're, hold on. 78 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:25,440 In our day to day, speaking our languages right. 79 00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:36,560 So a day set aside to celebrate the language is not as effective as it would be to children 80 00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:39,080 in the United States. 81 00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:41,080 Or like the UK. 82 00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:44,160 It is not the same. 83 00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:45,680 Because there, it is a remembrance. 84 00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:46,680 Exactly. 85 00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:50,360 There, like it is a commemoration of history. 86 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:51,920 But here, like it is our present. 87 00:05:51,920 --> 00:05:55,680 Yeah, like it is just our present. 88 00:05:55,680 --> 00:05:58,880 How does language change us? 89 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:03,520 How does it, I don't think you can actually say language changes us because like we always 90 00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:05,200 always have language, right? 91 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:07,360 We don't encounter language. 92 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:09,560 We always grow up with language. 93 00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:12,440 So how does language shape us? 94 00:06:12,440 --> 00:06:14,880 Make us actually is... 95 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:22,520 Your perception of the world remains, you know, an idea till you speak it out, till 96 00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:23,840 you act on it. 97 00:06:23,840 --> 00:06:28,400 And so because of that language, you know, as a tool for speaking out is very important 98 00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:35,480 because it basically brings us, you know, as a collective, as an individual in that 99 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:39,080 collective basically brings us to, to life. 100 00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:42,960 I think of things like Ikigai, Japanese. 101 00:06:42,960 --> 00:06:50,760 And I think of how those kinds of concepts are very core to some certain societies, some 102 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:59,640 certain groups of people, like democracy and the Greeks, which became democracy and everybody 103 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:01,360 essentially. 104 00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:11,640 But like there are...language is very valuable to informing these ideas. 105 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:18,600 And it makes me now ask, like how many of these sort of ideas do we have in Nigerian 106 00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:19,600 languages? 107 00:07:19,600 --> 00:07:26,720 Like the concept of Omoluabi, for example, is, you know, can't really be described in English. 108 00:07:26,720 --> 00:07:28,960 Yeah, well that's just one word. 109 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:30,600 I'm sure there are more. 110 00:07:30,600 --> 00:07:32,040 Like there are definitely many more. 111 00:07:32,040 --> 00:07:39,280 It just feels like the advanced concepts that we use essentially in our lives day to day, 112 00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:49,680 very few of them have Yoruba interpretations and it just seems like we don't have ours 113 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:51,640 originally either. 114 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:58,880 But you know, I just think, I think we can consider updating languages, like languages 115 00:07:58,880 --> 00:07:59,880 get updated. 116 00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:06,400 I don't know when this happened, but when somebody thought of the word "conundrum", like 117 00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:08,400 I fuck with that guy. 118 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:09,400 He just like just said it. 119 00:08:09,400 --> 00:08:12,880 And you can imagine how the people around him were just confused. 120 00:08:12,880 --> 00:08:18,520 Okay, so yeah, like you can see all these different ways English words get formed. 121 00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:21,600 Like some of them are just formed out of the blue. 122 00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:24,400 Some of them are adopted from other languages. 123 00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:31,280 They can form words by like adding prefixes and suffixes to an existing word. 124 00:08:31,280 --> 00:08:32,840 This is crazy. 125 00:08:32,840 --> 00:08:40,320 Port, import, export, transport, portable, deporting, transportation and important. 126 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:45,000 Okay, the only one that is separate is important. 127 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:51,360 But like all the other words are related concepts, which is pretty interesting. 128 00:08:51,360 --> 00:08:57,120 We actually took all these stats from people. 129 00:08:57,120 --> 00:09:03,000 I mean, who else do you take stats from? 130 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:12,440 So 70% of the people we talked to between the age 22 and 25, 19% between the ages of 131 00:09:12,440 --> 00:09:20,960 18 and 21, a few kids, a few 30+ and a few 26 to 29. 132 00:09:20,960 --> 00:09:23,080 I don't know what are they? 133 00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:24,080 They're just people. 134 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:26,080 They're in their least 20s. 135 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:28,080 They're in their least 20s. 136 00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:35,680 Anyway, most of them live in Lagos, as you would expect. 137 00:09:35,680 --> 00:09:38,160 It feels like most of Nigeria lives in Lagos. 138 00:09:38,160 --> 00:09:40,680 Yeah, that's what it feels like. 139 00:09:40,680 --> 00:09:42,840 But I assure you, that isn't the case. 140 00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:43,840 So fluency. 141 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:47,360 Now the thing is 19%. 142 00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:51,760 Okay, well, most of the people that responded are from Lagos. 143 00:09:51,760 --> 00:09:56,800 So we understand that this is like a metropolitan survey. 144 00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:04,960 But 19% of people can neither speak nor understand their mother tongue, which is a lot, right? 145 00:10:04,960 --> 00:10:05,960 I think. 146 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:06,960 Oh yeah. 147 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:13,800 19% can understand it perfectly, but can only respond back in English. 148 00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:19,120 Only 26% can speak, but they include English in it. 149 00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:23,440 And 29%, so basically 30%. 150 00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:29,080 Okay, now it's like less than what? 151 00:10:29,080 --> 00:10:32,880 This is like 10% can actually speak read and write. 152 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:34,680 Have full comprehension. 153 00:10:34,680 --> 00:10:35,680 10%. 154 00:10:35,680 --> 00:10:36,680 It's not a lot. 155 00:10:36,680 --> 00:10:37,680 It's not a lot. 156 00:10:37,680 --> 00:10:38,680 No, not at all. 157 00:10:38,680 --> 00:10:39,680 I was in my Jim Beglin bag. 158 00:10:39,680 --> 00:10:40,680 Jim Beglin bag. 159 00:10:40,680 --> 00:10:49,000 There was this reason. 160 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:54,560 This guy says like his dad can't speak his language. 161 00:10:54,560 --> 00:10:55,560 His mom can speak. 162 00:10:55,560 --> 00:10:58,760 No, his dad can't speak his language. 163 00:10:58,760 --> 00:11:02,200 His mom can speak the language fluently. 164 00:11:02,200 --> 00:11:07,000 And because of this difference. 165 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:10,880 Only English is spoken at home. 166 00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:12,880 That's real. 167 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:19,800 That's like something I can relate to because my parents settled on English because they 168 00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:21,600 speak different languages. 169 00:11:21,600 --> 00:11:22,600 Yeah. 170 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:23,600 Communication barrier. 171 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:24,600 You know. 172 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:25,600 Like. 173 00:11:25,600 --> 00:11:28,440 Okay, but the good thing is everybody wants to learn their mother tongue. 174 00:11:28,440 --> 00:11:29,440 Yeah, 98.5%. 175 00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:30,440 That's a good sign. 176 00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:33,440 I don't know if it's just me, but that's a lot. 177 00:11:33,440 --> 00:11:34,440 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 178 00:11:34,440 --> 00:11:35,440 I agree. 179 00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:38,680 But it may just be the two of us. 180 00:11:38,680 --> 00:11:41,240 I think it may be just me. 181 00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:49,280 86.8% of people think that the fact that we speak 530 Nigerian languages is good. 182 00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:53,680 So 13%, 13% think it is bad. 183 00:11:53,680 --> 00:11:57,600 I am a member of that 13%. 184 00:11:57,600 --> 00:12:03,960 Well, I just, I mean, I think it's cool that everybody has their thing, you know, but at 185 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:10,360 the same time, when you think about it in context of Nigeria, right, it would have been way, 186 00:12:10,360 --> 00:12:11,840 I don't know if it would have been better. 187 00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:12,840 I don't know. 188 00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:13,840 I don't know if it's good or bad. 189 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:14,840 Easier. 190 00:12:14,840 --> 00:12:15,840 But I know it'll be easier. 191 00:12:15,840 --> 00:12:17,840 I know it'll be easier to communicate. 192 00:12:17,840 --> 00:12:18,840 It's definitely easier. 193 00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:21,840 It'll be easier to aggregate views. 194 00:12:21,840 --> 00:12:27,520 Like there won't be, there won't be any, "Emilokan". 195 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:28,520 If we all spoke one language. 196 00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:29,520 Yes, like. 197 00:12:29,520 --> 00:12:30,520 Yeah, yeah. 198 00:12:30,520 --> 00:12:32,520 Just pick the best president. 199 00:12:32,520 --> 00:12:35,520 We won't have all these problems 200 00:12:35,520 --> 00:12:36,520 Okay. 201 00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:43,520 So we asked if, like, we asked for extra opinions. 202 00:12:43,520 --> 00:12:44,520 Yeah. 203 00:12:44,520 --> 00:12:48,520 And like, people just wrote in "no's". 204 00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:51,040 Like they were filling up for our response boxes with "no's". 205 00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:53,360 Yeah, but then they said they had nothing else. 206 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:55,520 Yeah, but also like, you can just leave it blank. 207 00:12:55,520 --> 00:12:56,520 Yeah. 208 00:12:56,520 --> 00:12:58,520 Yeah, but then when Nigerians, we have to give our. 209 00:12:58,520 --> 00:12:59,520 We have to. 210 00:12:59,520 --> 00:13:00,520 give our two cents. 211 00:13:00,520 --> 00:13:01,520 Yes, we always have two cents. 212 00:13:01,520 --> 00:13:02,520 We have. 213 00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:04,520 the most impotant two cents in the world. 214 00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:05,520 Nope with a smiley. 215 00:13:05,520 --> 00:13:07,520 Somebody wrote NA. 216 00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:09,520 Not available. 217 00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:13,520 Do you know how funny that is? 218 00:13:13,520 --> 00:13:15,520 Like nah, not available. 219 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:17,520 Two people actually. 220 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:21,520 Like someone says they would really love to learn their language, like they were reiterating. 221 00:13:21,520 --> 00:13:23,520 Like they really, like they felt that question. 222 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:24,520 Yeah. 223 00:13:24,520 --> 00:13:26,520 Someone said it's never too late to learn. 224 00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:34,520 Someone said he thinks some people are inclined, more inclined to understand because, okay, 225 00:13:34,520 --> 00:13:38,520 he thinks that some people are more inclined to like, learn languages than others. 226 00:13:38,520 --> 00:13:39,520 Yeah, I think that's true. 227 00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:42,520 Yeah, I think there are people that are just predisposed. 228 00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:43,520 Yeah, to learn multiple languages. 229 00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:47,520 Yeah, like my auntie speaks like, I think she speaks all the Nigerian languages. 230 00:13:47,520 --> 00:13:48,520 I'm sorry. 231 00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:49,520 She speaks the major. 232 00:13:49,520 --> 00:13:50,520 the major Nigerain languages. 233 00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:53,520 She does not speak 530 languages. 234 00:13:53,520 --> 00:13:54,520 I assure you. 235 00:13:54,520 --> 00:13:55,520 That would be impressive. 236 00:13:55,520 --> 00:13:59,520 Yeah, it's would be really impressive. 237 00:13:59,520 --> 00:14:02,520 Someone wants to learn Hausa, which is cool, right? 238 00:14:02,520 --> 00:14:04,520 Learn every language you can. 239 00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:10,520 It's also like, I feel like we should also be more actively learning each other's languages. 240 00:14:10,520 --> 00:14:15,520 Yeah, yeah, that would be, you know, it's just, you can just understand context. 241 00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:17,520 You can just get a lot of things. 242 00:14:17,520 --> 00:14:18,520 Yeah. 243 00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:20,520 Change your life really. 244 00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:28,520 Imagine people say, oh, Europeans know all these languages because there's so many languages spoken in Europe, right? 245 00:14:28,520 --> 00:14:33,520 So like how we talk about how Americans are people that only know one language. 246 00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:39,520 Americans and English people, but we're like Germans and other Europeans know at least two languages. 247 00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:41,520 Some of them know three, like Dutch people know. 248 00:14:41,520 --> 00:14:44,520 Most of the Dutch people know three languages, right? 249 00:14:44,520 --> 00:14:49,520 But we're like, okay, because they are Europeans, that's why they know. 250 00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:52,520 Because everybody knows English and they know their language. 251 00:14:52,520 --> 00:14:57,520 But then here, like in the same country, Europe, like Europe is a continent. 252 00:14:57,520 --> 00:15:05,520 Like in this country, Nigeria, we speak 530 different languages, but most people only speak one or two, right? 253 00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:09,520 English and your native language or only your native language. 254 00:15:09,520 --> 00:15:10,520 So it's like within a country. 255 00:15:10,520 --> 00:15:13,520 Like why don't we, you know? 256 00:15:13,520 --> 00:15:16,520 Yeah, learn. Try to learn. 257 00:15:16,520 --> 00:15:22,520 Yeah, that's... I feel like everybody should just knows fou languages in Nigeria. 258 00:15:22,520 --> 00:15:29,520 Yeah, that would be ideal, but then it would be difficult really to learn four languages. 259 00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:31,520 I don't think so. 260 00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:38,520 Language is just like when you're a child, if you're being spoken to with four different languages. 261 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:39,520 You're going to learn four languages. 262 00:15:39,520 --> 00:15:40,520 You're just going to know four languages. 263 00:15:40,520 --> 00:15:47,520 Okay, well, when you talk about it like that, you know, the way I was seeing it was a like in the present thing. 264 00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:48,520 No, no, no. 265 00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:50,520 You don't just learn four languages. 266 00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:52,520 Please. 267 00:15:54,520 --> 00:15:56,520 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel that point. Do I feel that point? 268 00:15:56,520 --> 00:16:00,520 Somebody said we need to ditch English and embrace Pidgin. 269 00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:06,520 Nah, nah, that's really funny because Pidgin is just English. 270 00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:08,520 It's literally... 271 00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:10,520 It's just English. 272 00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:12,520 It's broken English. 273 00:16:12,520 --> 00:16:14,520 I feel like that's such a weird way to describe it. 274 00:16:14,520 --> 00:16:16,520 Yeah, it's broken. 275 00:16:16,520 --> 00:16:21,520 It condemns it. It's so... it's so fucking negative. 276 00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:23,520 Broke English. 277 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:26,520 Broke... destroyed it. 278 00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:28,520 That's horrible. 279 00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:34,520 Yeah, but that's pretty much it from us. 280 00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:36,520 It's been real. 281 00:16:36,520 --> 00:16:38,520 Yeah, it's been real. 282 00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:41,520 This has been TLDR. 283 00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:43,520 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 284 00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:45,520 We never said it. 285 00:16:45,520 --> 00:16:47,520 Yes, TLDR. 286 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:49,520 And I'm Timilehin. 287 00:16:49,520 --> 00:16:51,520 I'm Oluchukwu. 288 00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:52,520 Cool. 289 00:16:52,520 --> 00:17:07,520 Have a great day.