CrossDialect - Keeping Ghanaian languages alive

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Desmond Atta Owusu Sekyere 12 years ago

Thats why we have a bigger problems now adays,,

Thats why we have a bigger problems now adays,,
TOM JAPAN 12 years ago

DEAR ALICE GOD BLESS YOU GHANAIANS HAS LOST WE PREFER TO SPEAK TO ENGLISH BUT WE ARE NOT ENGLISH WE HAVE OUR OWN LANGUAGE BUT BECOS WE HAVE LOST WE DONT EVEN TEACH OUR KIDS TO SPEAK OUR LANGUAGE CHINA INDIA MALAYSIA PAKESTAN ...
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DEAR ALICE GOD BLESS YOU GHANAIANS HAS LOST WE PREFER TO SPEAK TO ENGLISH BUT WE ARE NOT ENGLISH WE HAVE OUR OWN LANGUAGE BUT BECOS WE HAVE LOST WE DONT EVEN TEACH OUR KIDS TO SPEAK OUR LANGUAGE CHINA INDIA MALAYSIA PAKESTAN ALL DEVELOP AND SCH WITHOUT ENG OUR LACK OF DEVELOPMENT IS OUR LANGUAGE
ELINAM 12 years ago

Most parents who can't speak very well english to begin with, won't speak local Ghanaian language with their kids, and speak their funky english with the kids who in turn have no respect for their parents.

Most parents who can't speak very well english to begin with, won't speak local Ghanaian language with their kids, and speak their funky english with the kids who in turn have no respect for their parents.
eric-toronto 12 years ago

I will put it plain and simple. Some ghanaians need to put a stop to being over-zealous when it comes to speaking the english language. After all we are africans, not europeans. Just as europeans are proud of their heritage/l ...
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I will put it plain and simple. Some ghanaians need to put a stop to being over-zealous when it comes to speaking the english language. After all we are africans, not europeans. Just as europeans are proud of their heritage/language, so too must we be proud of our heritage and language. ye ye yenho abrofo sem do do.
Nii Teiko 12 years ago

Language genocide? Give me break! It seems more like a case of cultural genocide or something akin to national betrayal that the parents of that child have themselves committed and of which the child inevitably becomes the in ...
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Language genocide? Give me break! It seems more like a case of cultural genocide or something akin to national betrayal that the parents of that child have themselves committed and of which the child inevitably becomes the innocent victim.

I really dont get it. Now Im very sorry for Alice and her kind who abandon the peculiar difficulties of their own country in the first place to seek 'greener pastures' abroad.

When people like her go and live in other peoples countries with a totally different culture - including language, food, education, dressing, mannerisms and most importantly, perceptions of and about life, this is what happens - and these are just some of the most superficial and minor repercussions. There are also xenophobic antagonisms which these children have to live with everyday of their lives which reduces their sense of pride as Africans and esteem. Anytime an African child in Europe or America walks out of the small native cocoon of their homes into the public domain , they have to act and pretend not to be Africans until they return back home. By the time they grow up, they have involuntarily imbibed the inherent European prejudice of hating everything that comes from Africa - sometimes including their own parents.

In any case, why does Alice now think her child should learn the twi language? What for? To speak with who? Now what exactly did Alice expect in the first place?

The inability - or rather the refusal of most children born of Ghanaian parentage, especially in Europe and America to speak our local languages is just the least of the problems of these culturally disoriented
children. Most of them do not even want hear of the suggestion of coming down to Ghana for a two week holiday. Thats how bad it can get.

That child and all other non-European children in Europe are susceptible to suffer from the inevitable conflict of cultural crises. The reaction and effects of this, quite often retards and distorts the social perceptions of life of such children as non-native citizens of European countries. They become what in the US is derogatorily referred to as coconuts - black outside and white inside. Culturally bi-polar.
smartfoodsproducts.com 12 years ago

fantastic work, well done Alice

fantastic work, well done Alice
AD 12 years ago

Thank u sister.I had to send my 2 young kids to Ghana from US to spend some time so that they can learn the language and experience the culture. We continue to loose our identity to other people. BAD THING.

Thank u sister.I had to send my 2 young kids to Ghana from US to spend some time so that they can learn the language and experience the culture. We continue to loose our identity to other people. BAD THING.
Ketasco Headmaster 12 years ago

From day one, if you start speaking your dialect with your baby, that child will grow up understanding and speaking your dialect. But most Ghanaian parents in the diaspora, who themselves struggle with the English language, w ...
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From day one, if you start speaking your dialect with your baby, that child will grow up understanding and speaking your dialect. But most Ghanaian parents in the diaspora, who themselves struggle with the English language, want to bluff by speaking the bad English with their children. These children will, in the long run, know better English and start criticising the parents thus: "that is not how to say it, Mama", or "Dada".

No computer can teach any child his/her native dialect better than the child's own parents. How many out of the hundreds of Ghanaian dialects has Alice worked on; and what are the achievements?

Bringing children from UK or US to Ghana to learn your own dialect will not help. The people in Ghana will enjoy communicating with the children more in English than in your dialect; and they will back to you with corrupted English and a dialect that will fade away as soon as they land in the UK or US.

Ghana as a whole, must have a national language; and with that, some of us will learn it and ensure that our children can speak it whever they find themselves in in Ghana. But this joke of Keeping Ghanaian Languages Alive, will not go a mile. After all, how many Ghanaian languages does Alice speak, and how many can her company put on computer. Let's face facts, some languages have special alphabets, and accents, and naisal and gruttal sounds. Man! People should just do some translations, publish/print, and make money.
adjoa 12 years ago

The truth is that ghanaians are ashame of who they are, they always want to live in a dream world, and that is why women try to change their skin color to look white, parents overseas hate speaking their local languages to th ...
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The truth is that ghanaians are ashame of who they are, they always want to live in a dream world, and that is why women try to change their skin color to look white, parents overseas hate speaking their local languages to their kids. What a big shame?
BOSS 12 years ago

sometimes where the child was born also counts.for example if a child is born in france,spain,china,japan,gemany,italy etc and you speak twi or your native language with him at home what will happend to him when he wants to d ...
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sometimes where the child was born also counts.for example if a child is born in france,spain,china,japan,gemany,italy etc and you speak twi or your native language with him at home what will happend to him when he wants to do business in the UK/US and other English countries? on the other hand it is the fault of the parents if the child is born in an English country and he/she cant speak the native language

xyz 12 years ago

The child might end up speaking the english language perfectly. Chinese parents, Indian parents and others are speaking their languages at home with their kids. Yet they are even better than the so called "african kids" who c ...
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The child might end up speaking the english language perfectly. Chinese parents, Indian parents and others are speaking their languages at home with their kids. Yet they are even better than the so called "african kids" who can only speak english.

In a globalised world children must be encouraged to speak more than one language. People who speak more than are more opened towards others who are different.

Only speaking english is no excuse
Maclean 12 years ago

Colonialism revisited -- To my amazement, on my last visit to ACCRA, the so-called elite, no longer speaks the local dialect in various homes. The same is seen from our 'HONOURABLE' MPs, intellectuals etc shamefully mixing up ...
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Colonialism revisited -- To my amazement, on my last visit to ACCRA, the so-called elite, no longer speaks the local dialect in various homes. The same is seen from our 'HONOURABLE' MPs, intellectuals etc shamefully mixing up the local language and that of the West on various media outlets to the detriment of the same people (in most rural areas) they are suppose to represent. Whither have we been drifted!! They must read "THINGS FALL APART" by late Chinua Achebe.
ELINAM 12 years ago

The so-called elites have no command over the english language either. And this is reflected in their deliberations,and with limited eloquence, these disgraceful clowns will rather shout at each other with insulting words rat ...
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The so-called elites have no command over the english language either. And this is reflected in their deliberations,and with limited eloquence, these disgraceful clowns will rather shout at each other with insulting words rather than speak with intelligence.
lydia 12 years ago

If it was anything to do with npp or ndc, almost the whole Ghana will make a comment or two. Has the system been designed for us to say no to African ideology. .?

If it was anything to do with npp or ndc, almost the whole Ghana will make a comment or two. Has the system been designed for us to say no to African ideology. .?
Frank, Maryland 12 years ago

The idea of maintaining our local languages is good, but unfortunately they are not languages of opportunity. Not a single one of them can be used purely in modern commerce, technology, science, medicine, political governanc ...
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The idea of maintaining our local languages is good, but unfortunately they are not languages of opportunity. Not a single one of them can be used purely in modern commerce, technology, science, medicine, political governance, IT, etc. They are so technically under-developed that, they unfortunately will die a natural death like many others before them.
Its unfortunate, but such is life, the stronger lives on - and that is English, the language of the internet, the language of opportunity.
Maclean 12 years ago

Yes, we cannot use them in modern commerce, technology, science, medicine, political governance, IT, etc because we've been in the process of destroying them after the Englishman left our shores for good. Language has never b ...
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Yes, we cannot use them in modern commerce, technology, science, medicine, political governance, IT, etc because we've been in the process of destroying them after the Englishman left our shores for good. Language has never been a barrier to development for the simple fact that almost entire European Union members use the language of their yet they are progressing. The saddest thing is in our own backyard we use the language of the West to bluff and condescend our fellow citizens. Sooo shameful!!
Frank, Maryland 12 years ago

Am sorry to hurt the sensibilities of some my fellow Ghanaians, but unfortunately none of our languages has any future. As I recounted in my earlier submissions coupled with the brilliant analysis from Earl Jones, our local ...
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Am sorry to hurt the sensibilities of some my fellow Ghanaians, but unfortunately none of our languages has any future. As I recounted in my earlier submissions coupled with the brilliant analysis from Earl Jones, our local languages will all disappear with the passage of time. None of them is even spoken beyond our borders and any attempt to nationalize any of them will set us back thousands of years.
xyz 12 years ago

Who says that

Thousannds of years ago, Latin was the laguage of communication.It was the language of instruction at many schools and universities. But many were still iliterate. So after some time the european leaders rea ...
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Who says that

Thousannds of years ago, Latin was the laguage of communication.It was the language of instruction at many schools and universities. But many were still iliterate. So after some time the european leaders realised that they could not move forward.

Everwhere the language of the masses are used to educate its countrys citizens. Do u think the chinese would be able to move forward if they had used the english language? NO

What we lack is africans lack is the consciousness.We must realise that we are africans and not europeans. How many europeans can speak an african language?
yao 12 years ago

do the germans or Chinese or arab use to do commerce or science? you guys have sold your souls to the Europeans. if you go to say togo do you have to use English to do commerce? or if you are in south America do you need Fre ...
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do the germans or Chinese or arab use to do commerce or science? you guys have sold your souls to the Europeans. if you go to say togo do you have to use English to do commerce? or if you are in south America do you need French to do business. you guys are the embodiment of European slavery in Africa.
Obiri-Mainoo @ALP, HU 12 years ago

The issue is not so much about Ghanaian languages being or not being languages of opportunity. It is making sure our culture lives on, and language is the vehicular platform to ensure this. Hence, the need to tell Ms Alice Ak ...
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The issue is not so much about Ghanaian languages being or not being languages of opportunity. It is making sure our culture lives on, and language is the vehicular platform to ensure this. Hence, the need to tell Ms Alice Ako that she has done a good job by her innovative language software.
For your information, more and more universities in the United States are joining the ranks of Harvard, Yale, Michigan and Wisconsin, just to name a few, to expand the teaching and learning of African Languages and to make them "languages of opportunity" as they travel to Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, etc every summer to put into practice what they learn in the classroom. Most of these students have their concentrations in technology, commerce, agriculture, political governance, medicine, the sciences and several other academic disciplines. African languages may have been technically under-developed years ago, but this is not so now because the dynamics of 21st century education is gradually leveling up the playing field.
Finally, there is a growing number of software engineers both in Ghana, in other African countries and beyond in the developed world who are working to digitize our unique alphabets and the languages generally.
So instead of resigning ourselves to fate and waiting “to see our languages die a natural death”, we are soon going to see more Alice Akos emerging from the language and technological doldrums to add more fervor to the learning of African languages, thus making them globally attractive and technically competitive, even among the classical and traditional languages. Kudos to Alice!

Maclean 12 years ago

Well said!!!!

Well said!!!!
Crossdialect 12 years ago

Thank You!!!!!

Thank You!!!!!
CAPII 12 years ago

WHEN YOU LOOSE YOUR CUSTOMS & TRADITIONS, YOU'RE LOST AS PEOPLE. ANOTHER CULTURE CONTROLS YOUR WILL AND DESTINY. THAT IS MENTAL SLAVERY, SO BE THE REAL YOU; NOT BACK RIDER.

WHEN YOU LOOSE YOUR CUSTOMS & TRADITIONS, YOU'RE LOST AS PEOPLE. ANOTHER CULTURE CONTROLS YOUR WILL AND DESTINY. THAT IS MENTAL SLAVERY, SO BE THE REAL YOU; NOT BACK RIDER.
Crossdialect 12 years ago

Thank You!!

Thank You!!
ANANSE KWAKU 12 years ago

A good point well made. One funny twist to this issue is: some parents don't want their children to speak the Ghanaian language! It would have been a good "deal" if our children learnt and spoke the Ghanaian language at home ...
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A good point well made. One funny twist to this issue is: some parents don't want their children to speak the Ghanaian language! It would have been a good "deal" if our children learnt and spoke the Ghanaian language at home and spoke English when they went out-to school and other places. But some parents simply want their kids to speak English all the time. The irony (and the funny part) is that, most of these "English" parents speak very horrible English and thus idirectly try to "transmit" this horrible way of speaking to their children. No wonder some of these kids correct their parents' mistakes!
Naa Shormey Nortey-Tawiah 12 years ago

In this pc age,the interactive way of lthis programme means our children can learn at their own pace,in their own time and with one another .great job done.thank you for helping us pick up the pieces this area where most of u ...
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In this pc age,the interactive way of lthis programme means our children can learn at their own pace,in their own time and with one another .great job done.thank you for helping us pick up the pieces this area where most of us parents in the Uk have failed our children.
Crossdialect 12 years ago

Thank you

Thank you
Larweh 12 years ago

Our mothers should learn from Ako n stop those satanic words such as 'beyiefuoba,ect especially when de child go wrong.

Our mothers should learn from Ako n stop those satanic words such as 'beyiefuoba,ect especially when de child go wrong.
Earl Jones 12 years ago

The attempt to force-feed children in the UK of Akan parentage Twi is an exercise intended to massage the egos of the parents and has no value whatsover for the kids who were born and integrated into the culture of the UK. Th ...
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The attempt to force-feed children in the UK of Akan parentage Twi is an exercise intended to massage the egos of the parents and has no value whatsover for the kids who were born and integrated into the culture of the UK. Think about it, the parents speak Twi because they were born into a culture which spoke Twi. It is relevant to the parents therefore to speak Twi.
Language evolves and some languages outlive their usefulness. This is inevitable and any time to arrest the process will be trying to stop water from flowing down stream, an exercise in futility. Some of the languages we have now never existed 500 yrs ago. Even the English language has changed and anglosaxon britain has seen their language modified by influences from other European languages. What use is Twi to a child of Ghanaian parentage born and bred in the UK who has never stepped foot in Ghana?
They will be better off learning languages they are likely to need to use such as French, German, Chinese and spanish. Even more widely spoken languages such as latin is dead. In 500 yrs, the whole of Ghana will be speaking English whether you like it or not. The self-sustaining and irreversible process started in the 15th century when African was colonised. Even America could not stop English being the dominant and lingua Franka in their couuntry besides, what is the use fighting it?
TENDAANA 12 years ago

You made a lot of sense.none of our Ghanain languages even have an alphabet to start with

You made a lot of sense.none of our Ghanain languages even have an alphabet to start with

Kwabena 12 years ago

So in other words we shouldn't learn our native tongues, let our cultures die, and take on European ways? Brilliant. Let more of our ways fall by the wayside and lose ourselves, like the colonists basically wanted. That is st ...
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So in other words we shouldn't learn our native tongues, let our cultures die, and take on European ways? Brilliant. Let more of our ways fall by the wayside and lose ourselves, like the colonists basically wanted. That is stupid.

I'm proud of this woman for doing this. The Asians, Hispanics, and various Europeans have kept their languages and even forced them on the world. Why don't we do the same? Not by force, but showing some damn pride.
Ato 12 years ago

Earl Jones I like the first part of your contribution. It was excellent and to the point.

However I wish to add my observations which do not match with yours. You say that "in 500 years the whole of Ghana will be speaking ...
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Earl Jones I like the first part of your contribution. It was excellent and to the point.

However I wish to add my observations which do not match with yours. You say that "in 500 years the whole of Ghana will be speaking English"? In my opinion, I think that in 20 to 50 years the whole of Ghana would indeed have reverted to speaking English - officially and unofficially.

In 500 years, however, the whole of Africa and Europe will, by no other choice other than the need for economic survival, be speaking Chinese. The trends towards this direction are irreversible.

In your very first sentence you say that ".... Twi is an exercise intended to massage the egos of the parents and has no value whatsoever for the kids who were born and integrated into the culture of the UK." Very true, except that the exercise of force-feeding their children to speak twi is not only intended to massage the egos of socially misplaced immigrant Ghanaian parents, it is actually a belated effort by such parents to massage their evident guilt of losing their children to a foreign or hostile culture which we privately claim to dislike.

This matter of speaking or not speaking our local languages is not only restricted to language. In todays world, every language comes with a baggage of lifestyle, economic weight, currency value, military strength etc etc. Those languages whose speakers excel in any of those areas exert predominance over all others. In this interplay, even our most prominent language - the twi language, hasnt got a chance of survival. It is only for primitive, unproductive and unprofitable sentimental reasons that some of our people like to day-dream about maintaining or promoting our local languages. As you rightly say, it will be an exercise in futility.
TAK 12 years ago

IF A CHILD IS BORN IN CHINA OR LIVING THERE CHINESE LANGUAGE WILL NOT BE A PROBLEM. PATRIOTIC PEOPLE WILL TEACH THE MOTHER TONGUE LIKE WE CALL IT. AFRICANS (WEST) SHAME ONTO US.

IF A CHILD IS BORN IN CHINA OR LIVING THERE CHINESE LANGUAGE WILL NOT BE A PROBLEM. PATRIOTIC PEOPLE WILL TEACH THE MOTHER TONGUE LIKE WE CALL IT. AFRICANS (WEST) SHAME ONTO US.
Kwabena 12 years ago

Preach.

Preach.
Frank, Maryland 12 years ago

In my earlier submission, I alluded to the fact that none of our languages is opportunistic enough to survive. Language is dynamic and our languages have not evolved with the passage of time and the funny part is that none o ...
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In my earlier submission, I alluded to the fact that none of our languages is opportunistic enough to survive. Language is dynamic and our languages have not evolved with the passage of time and the funny part is that none of us interacting on this forum is using any other language other than English. Funny, isnt it!
Maclean 12 years ago

By interacting on this forum with recourse to English language is not funny. We live in bilingual society and English language has been adopted as the universally accept medium of communication, e.g.in the aviation industry t ...
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By interacting on this forum with recourse to English language is not funny. We live in bilingual society and English language has been adopted as the universally accept medium of communication, e.g.in the aviation industry to avoid air planes colliding in mid-air (if each pilot does speak their only their dialect)or the EU. Outside this majority of communities are thriving within their own languages.
KUKRUDU 12 years ago

Ghanaians thought it was COOL to rebuke anyone attempting to talk to their kids in any Ghanaian language. You have Italians, Indians, Chinese, Arabs - you name it, they all ensure their children speak their languages - AND t ...
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Ghanaians thought it was COOL to rebuke anyone attempting to talk to their kids in any Ghanaian language. You have Italians, Indians, Chinese, Arabs - you name it, they all ensure their children speak their languages - AND they do very well in school!!! Good to have a software BUT that is a good approach if the parents cannot speak the language. If however they can or at least one can, all it takes to speak to the children in the chosen language and the results are great. I called a little Ghanaian boy by his Ghanaian name - 'KOJO', the father snapped, his name is 'VINCENT'.
Ato 12 years ago

Kukurudu, when you mention other languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Indian and even Italian, you did not take into consideration the cultural and political weight of the countries where those languages are spoken.

If Arabi ...
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Kukurudu, when you mention other languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Indian and even Italian, you did not take into consideration the cultural and political weight of the countries where those languages are spoken.

If Arabic is spoken by over 400 million people, English is spoken by about 350 million people, Indian is spoken by about 1.2 billion people and Chinese is spoken by about 1.3 billion people, one can understand why they would encourage their children to speak their languages. They want their children to ride on the strength of their widely spoken languages to succeed. Lets even forget about the economic, military and political strength that supports and projects these countries.

How can we compare our country with a mere 25 million population with over 100 languages, to any of the above which you quoted?

Lets be truthful to ourselves, our mini and inconsequential languages do not have chance in the present circumstances of world affairs.
xyz 12 years ago

Ghana has 79 languages
And India has over 1000s of languages so it cant be comapred to Ghana.

What significance has the dutch language such as the netherlands with a small poulation of 16 million people.

Ghana has 79 languages
And India has over 1000s of languages so it cant be comapred to Ghana.

What significance has the dutch language such as the netherlands with a small poulation of 16 million people.
toroto ontario canada 12 years ago

alice ako what do you want to tell me go to Ghana Methodist church in Toronto and ask any one in the church about a young 20year old kofi who read the the twi bible at church,he was born here in Toronto he speaks the twi sin ...
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alice ako what do you want to tell me go to Ghana Methodist church in Toronto and ask any one in the church about a young 20year old kofi who read the the twi bible at church,he was born here in Toronto he speaks the twi since he started talking as a baby.many of the kids in the church arenow speaking the twi in the church,go and look at her so called kids faces like a bat
Yaa 12 years ago

Great article! some people on here are making excuses and it's a damn shame. I have been living in Canada since the age of 3; I am 30 now. The communities that I lived in back than were predominately white; not as much ghana ...
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Great article! some people on here are making excuses and it's a damn shame. I have been living in Canada since the age of 3; I am 30 now. The communities that I lived in back than were predominately white; not as much ghanaian's were migrating then but my parents always made it known that I am Ghanaian so it is not good enough just to understand the language but also speak it. My mother always made it clear that she would never speak english to me at home---it made no sense to....when i go to school or out with friends I speak the english language non-stop plus I eat banku and fufu like it's nobody's business so why should I turn a blind eye to my identity? Ghanaian parents have to do better; do not deny your children of our beautiful language. If parents make an effort to teach them , there is no way the children will object...by the way, sorry for the long speech, just passionate, that's all :)
Crossdialect 12 years ago

Thank you and also for being polite

Thank you and also for being polite
Freeman 12 years ago

Alice God bless you.Iam a Ghanaian language(Fante) teacher and I share the same sentiment with you. I keep saying that if nothing is done to inculcate our rich Ghanaian culture into the younger generation through the teaching ...
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Alice God bless you.Iam a Ghanaian language(Fante) teacher and I share the same sentiment with you. I keep saying that if nothing is done to inculcate our rich Ghanaian culture into the younger generation through the teaching of Ghanaian languages, 20-30years to come many Ghanaian youth will become cultural misfit. They will be cut off their culture, their race and they will become a "lost identity" people. It will surprise you to know that many private schools in Ghana have abandoned the teaching of Ghanaian language, some with the reason that they hardly get professionals to competently handle the subject yet they have more English teachers. Ask yourself that how many Ghanaian youth can fluently speak their home language without blemish, how many know their home festival and can talk about it, how many can tell their past.I leave this to those who will read this comment."A person not connected to his/her past becomes cultural misfit and cultural misfit amount to slavery". Remember that language is one of our cultural heritage therefore it is the responsibility of parents to help their wards acquire their home language.
Crossdialect 12 years ago

Thank you. I agree with you

Thank you. I agree with you

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CrossDialect - Keeping Ghanaian languages alive

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