Five years ago, Sugabelly did a language challenge that was really fun! Although, at the time, it was like pulling teeth for me because it required me to speak Igbo, and my Igbo isn’t great. I am reminded of this post now because on April 1st of this year, I put up an April Fool post (sort of) where I listed three truths and two lies about myself and had you guess which ones were true and which ones weren’t. You can read that post here, but as a reminder, below are the three truths and two lies:
Number 1 and Number 5 were the lies, and the rest were true. But let me talk about number 2: “I used to speak Russian fluently.” I know it sounds weird, but yes, indeed, I used to speak Russian fluently. One of my greatest regrets is that I no longer speak Russian – not even a little bit.
As I have mentioned lots of times, I was born in Russia, and I did not return to Nigeria till I was four years old. By the time we moved to Nigeria, I was speaking Russian fluently and not a lick of English. I had to start school in Nigeria, of course, so that meant that I also had to learn English. My parents were so desperate to teach me English that they did not really speak Igbo to me at that time.
I eventually learned English, and learned it so well. But in the process, two things happened: (1) I forgot Russian, and (2) I did not speak Igbo. So now, it’s not that I have no knowledge of Igbo, or that I cannot speak the language, but that I speak Igbo like I’m a foreigner, like it’s a learned language, and I speak it with a non-Igbo accent. Also, my parents used to laugh when I attempted to speak Igbo, and they said my Igbo wasn’t done, so I just kind of got used to not speaking it.
I meet people sometimes now and they ask if I speak Igbo, and I always say yes, but when they speak to me in Igbo, I respond in English, except for when I say a few things in Igbo. One weird thing however, is that although I do not speak Russian, my ears still recognize it. I cannot explain it. But whenever someone speaks Russian around me, my ears hear it and recognize it. I immediately know it’s Russian, and I wish I could speak back to them in Russian.
If the situation permits, I would introduce myself to said person (people) and they would often be surprised that I was born in Russia. It’s almost as if it’s abnormal to have a Black person living in America who was born in Russia. They would ask me what city I was born in, and I would tell them, and they would look at me with astonishment and affection, followed by disappointment when I tell them that I no longer speak the language.
Anyway, here’s the audio of me speaking Igbo. I hope that one day, there will be an audio of me speaking Russian, too.
P.S. Both my parents still speak Russian fluently, and it is the language they turn to when they don’t want me to understand what they’re saying.
P.P.S. Here’s the original post that Sugabelly made me do.
P.P.P.S. Learning to speak Russian is still on my to-do list. Lord, help me.
P.P.P.P.S. Speaking Igbo and not having it sound undone is even higher on my to-do list.
Abeg you tried jare! Lol!!!!
You passed across your message- asked that people follow you on twitter too- that’s sufficient! Lol.
I’m trying to speak igbo to my son, I’ll be more focused on that now….
How funny, I was just reminiscing over my own post for Sugabelly’s language challenge. God help me and my beyond subpar Igbo skills.
Girl you did good!! Your igbo is actually pretty good. Nice job Vera!
Wow. Nice job vera. All you need do is to practice more and your Igbo will soon be ‘done’. But seriously, most Ibo parents are the most guilty of not speaking Igbo to their kids when they are small. They need to step up (or is it step down) by going back to the grassroots.
You recognize Russian when it is spoken because you never forget a language you spoke as a child and accent for that matter that you had as a child. Be it ten years later or 90 years later you will still recognize that language or speak in the accent you had as a child if you find yourself in an environment that speaks the same language or has that accent. This is true in my personal experience and also of my very Igbo friend who spoke Yoruba as a child having been born in Lagos and moved to the abroad and “lost” the language but anytime she was around people speaking Yoruba she would understand everything they were saying word for word as an adult and could respond but not as fluently as she did as a child. Mine is an accent I had as a child from a different country which creeps up whenever I am speaking with people from that country.