Have you been trying to learn Igbo for some time now?
Are you feeling frustrated?
Do you feel lost when your family is speaking Igbo around you?
Feeling disconnected from your roots and culture?
I hear you
If you are ready to connect deeper with your family and feel more at home…
Read on…
The no 1 myth
‘I don’t have time’
Right
I get it
You have a job
Or maybe 2
You have Kids to look after
You have a house to keep
And loads more
So what happens with your Igbo speaking?
It goes wayyyyyy down the list
Stay with me…
We make time for things that are important
We make it happen
We move meetings,
We miss Netflix shows
Heck, we even miss the kid’s dance class
To ensure we do the no 1 thing on our agenda
Now…
Am I saying Igbo should be the number one on your to do list?
Not necessarily
Though that’s ok too
What I’m saying is
Put Igbo in your diary
Add it to your daily to do list
Or at least on your Monday to Friday list
Allocate 15mins a day
30mins if you can
But allocate some time
Don’t leave it to chance
Because you may not remember
And before you know it
Another year has gone
And no progress made
You still feel out of place when your family speaks Igbo
You are here, now
To make a change
To act on your dreams
To make them real
So get out your diary out right now
And pencil in Igbo
Before finishing this article
Done that?
Super!
Let’s carry on…
No 2 myth
‘I have to learn grammar first’
Not true
Think back to how you learnt your first language
When you learnt to speak
Did you use grammar rules?
Did you have to do conjugations?
I think not
I will tell you how you did it
You acquired your first language
By listening
By watching gestures
By adding context to speech
By copying
And repeating what you heard
Yes that’s it
That’s what you did
I am telling you, now
You can do the exact same thing again
With your Igbo learning
Surround yourself with Igbo language
Igbo music
Igbo news
Igbo audio
Igbo youtube videos
Igbo podcasts
Listen loads
Watch gestures
Apply context to what you hear
Copy what you hear
And speak it
Be a parrot if you need to 😊
You know how children can repeat words on end
Yes
Do the same
You will sound silly
You will feel strange
You will sound funny
But not for long
Give it a week
4 weeks
Heck! A year even
Stick with it…
And before you know it
You sound less silly
Less strange
You start to make sense of conversations
You start to reply in Igbo
At first by giving one word answers, like kids
Then 2 words
Mixing it with English (even the natives speak ‘Engligbo’)
And ultimately
You start to speak in sentences
The question is..
Are you ready to sound silly?
Are you ready for your speech to be misunderstood a lot?
Because that’s what happen when babies talk
We don’t understand them most of the time initially
Then slowly, the babbles start to make sense
The words become clearer
And BOOM!
The kids becomes an expert
And won’t stop talking 😊
That’s the key nwanne m
Being child-like
Forgetting self-consciousness
I know
‘Easier said than done’
But who said it will be easy
You know it already
If you’ve spent any amount of time in this fantastic place
Called ‘earth’
You know that good things take time and work
Right
Moving on…
No 3 myth to bust
‘There are no resources’
That’s in the past
Things have changed
With the internet
There are social media pages
Handles
Channels
Accounts
Dedicated to Igbo language
To speaking Igbo
To writing Igbo
BBC Igbo for instance
And there are more Igbo books
Easily available on Amazon
Igbo websites
Live Igbo classes
Online Igbo teachers and language coaches
Of which I am one
Before saying there are no resources
Check and ask
‘How many Igbo books have I read?’
‘How many Igbo videos have I watched?’
‘How many Igbo courses have I taken?’
‘Have I hired an Igbo coach/mentor?’
So
That’s the myths busted
Let me remind you of what we already said
And what you need to affirm daily
Say after me…
‘I have time for Igbo, it’s in my diary (you’ve put it there, haven’t you?)
‘I’m learning to speak Igbo by listening, watching and repeating what I hear’
‘I have ample resources to learn Igbo, YouTube channels, books and Igbo language coaches’
The final tip I will share today
Is to get clear on ‘why’
Ask…
Why am I learning to speak Igbo?
Why do I have to learn it now?
What will happen if I don’t learn to speak it ASAP?
Write down the answer to these questions
Somewhere you can see it
And look at it
At least every week
So you can keep going
And not stop
Because that’s how you become a confident Igbo speaker
By speaking
And not stopping
You may take a break
Maybe a day
Or 1 week
But don’t let it be more than that
It doesn’t have to be lessons all the time
You can just listen to Igbo music when you’re not in the mood for formal lessons
Or listen to Igbo podcasts
‘Nuff said
Time to get to work
Before you go
Remember that I help my clients become confident Igbo speakers
If you’re struggling with making progress
Stopping and starting
Overwhelmed with all that you need to learn
Get in touch
Don’t go it alone
None of us are really self-made
We are communal creatures
Book a call with me
And find out how you can become the next confident Igbo speaker
So you can communicate with your family in Igbo
And when you are outside and you don’t want everyone to be privy to your conversation
You can jump right in, and speak in Igbo
Get in touch now
Book a call
Speak soon
Ijeoma
I am Ijeoma Akubue. I help Igbo learners become confident Igbo speakers. My clients range from mums who are learning Igbo with their kids so they can communicate with their Igbo partners and extended family; to young people who have recently connected with their heritage and have decided to learn to speak Igbo.
To find out how I help my clients speak Igbo confidently, click the link below.