{"id":12147,"date":"2016-04-14T02:25:37","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T06:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/verastic.com\/?p=12147"},"modified":"2016-04-14T02:25:37","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T06:25:37","slug":"throwback-sugabelly-made-speak-igbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/personal\/throwback-sugabelly-made-speak-igbo.html","title":{"rendered":"Throwback To When Sugabelly Made Me Speak Igbo"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a><\/strong>, but as a reminder, below are the three truths and two lies:<\/p>\n

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.”<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Russian<\/p>\n

I eventually learned English, and learned it so well. But in the process, two things happened: (1)<\/strong> I forgot Russian, and (2)<\/strong> 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<\/em>, so I just kind of got used to not speaking it.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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>\n