Why can't your children speak Igbo?

Posted by Felix Okoli on Wednesday April 24, 2013 at 15:51:18:

This could be one of the many questions Igbo parents may ask themselves when their children can't speak their native language. A lot of Igbo parents may also feel that it is already late for their children to speak in their mother tongue since they didn't bring them up that way.

I do know of one American Igbo family whose children were all brought up in the US but they can still all speak Igbo.

I think it has to do with the language with which the children were all brought up with. If the parents are used to speaking Igbo at home to themselves and to their children, chances of the children catching up on the language are high. I think it also has to do with the number of children you have. If you have only one child, it can be hard for him to speak Igbo if he/she has no one to talk to so for those who have only one Igbo child, they need to have more children or bring another child from their relatives or village to be a playmate with their child.

There are lot of things Igbo parents can do to help their child learn Igbo if they really want to. Afterall, people learn new languages like French or German in under 6 months to a year.

As a kid living in Nigeria, even though we were already used to speaking Igbo, our parents still brought one of our relations, who was a teacher, to teach us Igbo lessons at home. So, we learnt not just how to speak Igbo but also how to write or spell Igbo words.

Personally, some of the things that helped us to speak Igbo include:

- Doing Igbo language as a subject at school
- Availability of Igbo literature like books and bible at home
- Availability of Igbo movies at home
- Availability of Igbo speaking peers and parents
- Tradition of using only Igbo language at home as a means of communication. English was meant for school

If your kids can't speak Igbo, it's never too late. One of the things you can do are getting them Igbo movies with English subtitles. They could also attend Igbo lessons or get a private Igbo teacher at home.