The English Fluency Advantage: A Ghanaian global wealth advantage

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• Asase Ba 6 days ago

  The Fantes say "Brofo Ye dur." I think the approach to learning the English language in Ghana is OK. Ridiculing people who speak poor English is a local or national game - nothing to be taken seriously. What should be encou ...
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  The Fantes say "Brofo Ye dur." I think the approach to learning the English language in Ghana is OK. Ridiculing people who speak poor English is a local or national game - nothing to be taken seriously. What should be encouraged is the creation of more bookstores, the stocking of libraries with relevant reading material, and the making of English books, magazines, and newspapers more accessible to the ordinary citizen.

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• Nsia 6 days ago

  Thanks for your lovely piece. Whether we like it or not the English language is a force for good. Who in Ghana has ever qualified to be a nurse, doctor , pilot , engineer by learning through any of our local languages from ...
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  Thanks for your lovely piece. Whether we like it or not the English language is a force for good. Who in Ghana has ever qualified to be a nurse, doctor , pilot , engineer by learning through any of our local languages from primary school to university? None!
  The stupidity stems from the fact that, even respected journalists such Kwesi Pratt and co sit on TV and denigrate the English Language as "Poto Kasa" even though his understanding of the English language is far superior to his own native Fante language, All his livelihood has been based on his ability to speak and write in English.
  Now, do I speak Ga, Dagomba or Nzema ? No! If Iam in a lift with four Ga , Dagomba or Ewe people and they decide to wring my neck but confidently say that in font of the in the lift in the their language, will I understand a word of it? No!
  If four English men did the same in the same scenario, will I undertstand them and probably fight them fearlessly? Yes!
  The question is: which of these languages is "Poto Kas" to me? Ga, Ewe, Dagomba which I did not understand a word or English,? And, the same is applicable to the Ga , Ewe or Dagomba person if Fante or Akupem Twi is spoken. Which they might not understand,
  So, the stupidity of politicians and journalists referring to the English language as "Poto Kasa" is idiotic, banal and extremely stupid,.And, that started only a few years ago,amplified by some politicians and Kwesi Pratt.
  My English is not perfect, but I always strive to improve upon it,
  Ivory Coast, do not have this problem even though they have about 70 different languages just as we have, yet they all speak good French with structure and syntax,. When did our Akan Twi language become the mother tongue of Dagombas, Ewes, Gas, Kokombas,Dagarte etc,? English should serve as a good bridge for all of us. French works for Ivorians, Buriknabes etc without a problem. We have created this nonsense for ourselves. I dare any Twi speaking person to tell me our version of Chemistry, Physics, Biology, molecule, Amoeba,,Osmosis etc. Cheers!

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• Nsia 6 days ago

  @who would have listened to ABBA songs in Ghana or other African countries if they had sung in Swedish?
  At some point , they were one of the biggest foreign exchange earners for Sweden. And, it was through the English lang ...
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  @who would have listened to ABBA songs in Ghana or other African countries if they had sung in Swedish?
  At some point , they were one of the biggest foreign exchange earners for Sweden. And, it was through the English language. Do not take my word for it....
  Read....
  
  Yes, it is largely true that at the height of their fame, ABBA was one of Sweden’s top foreign exchange earners, frequently cited as ranking just behind the industrial giant Volvo in export revenue during the late 1970s.Here are the details behind that claim:A "Money Machine": During the late 1970s and early 1980s, ABBA was so successful that they were considered a major "money machine," providing significant foreign currency inflows into the Swedish economy.The Second-Biggest Export: Many sources note that at their peak, ABBA was trailing only Volvo as Sweden’s largest source of export income.Massive Revenue: Their business manager, Stig Anderson, built a massive empire through extensive royalty deals and international record sales.

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• MG 10 hours ago

  After 70 years of independence with English as an official language, Ghana still has not achieved widespread fluency. This long track record should prompt a fundamental question: if the same approach has not worked for decad ...
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  After 70 years of independence with English as an official language, Ghana still has not achieved widespread fluency. This long track record should prompt a fundamental question: if the same approach has not worked for decades, why assume that intensifying it through mandate will succeed?
  
  Continuing to pursue universal English fluency through force of policy, without addressing the deeper constraints that have prevented its achievement sounds like the definition of insanity, that is doing the same thing and expecting different results. Rather than doubling down on a strategy that has demonstrably failed to deliver, Ghana should reconsider its approach entirely.
  
  Your argument for English as a national mandate oversimplifies what actually determines economic success. While English has clear value, treating it as the singular route to opportunity overlooks the structural barriers, practical limitations, and alternative pathways that determine who succeeds internationally.
  
  The core assumption that if Ghanaians became fluent in English, they would access global markets is flawed. The real obstacles to scaling Ghanaian content and businesses are access to capital, reliable internet and electricity, professional networks, distribution channels, and platform algorithms. Many entrepreneurs fail not because they lack English, but because they lack funding, mentorship, and networks. English fluency alone cannot solve these structural problems.
  
  There is also a severe practical constraint to deliver your proposal for an English language mandate. Ghana lacks enough competent English teachers. Period. Scaling national fluency requires substantial long-term investment in teacher training, pay, and rural deployment. Without this foundation, mandates become hollow policies that punish students and teachers while achieving minimal results.
  
  You treat language development as zero-sum: either invest heavily in English or do nothing. Instead, Ghana should develop indigenous languages as economic infrastructures. This means creating technical vocabularies in local languages, funding vernacular literacy and curriculum development, localizing digital services, and building translation infrastructure to convert global knowledge into local tongues.
  
  China, Korea, and Japan are models of global success that contradict the case for an English mandate. Those countries achieved strong development while operating largely in native languages. They succeeded because they invested in centralized standard languages and coordinated translation policies. Germany, France, and the Nordic countries provide additional examples. These nations maintain world-leading economies, technological innovation, and global competitiveness despite using their own languages in education, business, and digital infrastructure. Germany's engineering and manufacturing dominance, France's influence in science and culture, and Scandinavia's leadership in technology and quality of life all flourished without requiring universal English fluency. Ghana faces challenges replicating this approach because it has multiple local languages with distinct constituencies. Choosing which to advance is politically and ethnically fraught, and risks marginalizing other groups. Nonetheless, the lesson from these nations is not that English is not necessary, but that deliberate investment in language infrastructure works, regardless of which language is chosen.
  
  English by itself is insufficient for global reach. The realistic pathway is genuine bilingualism that promotes functional English skills for specific purposes while investing deliberately in developing and digitalizing indigenous languages. This means investing in teacher training, building translation infrastructure, developing vernacular digital services, and funding local-language research and tools.
  
  A mandate for English without addressing teacher capacity and acknowledging Ghana's multilingual reality will continue to produce disappointed expectations and deepened inequality. Ghana should pair realistic investments in English capacity with robust development of indigenous languages and translation systems. English should be one strategic asset among many, not the sole solution.

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