Stop discrediting, shaming of our learned folks over broken English

It brought me a lot of grief and sadness reading online the responses of fellow Tanzanians on numerous feats of victory of our fellow countrymen, mostly abroad, in which they are necessitated to speak the English language.

I have experienced this firsthand too, as I am Tanzanian, whereby fellow Tanzanians even without knowing me, they presume I have to be ‘average’ in English language mastery.

It is particularly saddening when we are in prominent dignified arenas with our brothers and sisters who have worked very hard, making our nation proud, and above all making the world a better place owing to their crucial hard work.

In the absence of social media, most people would not have heard such great accomplishments of fellow Tanzanians, and probably there would be less shaming.

Nonetheless, it is difficult to ascertain, why we have such a perfectionistic view of language, especially the English Language.

Many of us are comfortable in spoken Kiswahili, good enough in conversation, but we have made no effort to grow our capacity in the same language we use every day, despite there being a need as well as available opportunities to do so; so as to maximise the facility of our Kiswahili language.

But when it comes to English we place on ourselves very high standards, which are not even standards among the English themselves.

Having lived in the UK for some years, I can attest to the fact that there is nothing like the right English ‘accent.’

There are hundreds, probably thousands of English accents across the UK alone, which is made up of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. T

here are also other hundreds or thousands of accents in other western English speaking countries.

Other European nationals also speak English with accents influenced by their languages, some of which make similar mistakes as those most Kiswahili speakers make.

For example, most of the French have difficulty pronouncing words like the, this, that,… they pronounce them with a strong ‘Z’ sound. But when this happens to a Tanzanians he becomes the centre of ridicule.

In fact, there are many European English accents that make the language very difficult to understand as compared to Tanzanian accent, or any other African English accent.

Joining Asia in the pot, there are indeed thousands of accents used in the same language to keep the world running and progressing.

Another issue to consider is the pace of speaking. Everyone has a transferable pace of speaking across different languages.

We don’t just naturally speak faster in one language and slower in another, unless for a reason of limitation, whereby we know the other language more, or a constraint of circumstances which necessitate the need to speak faster.

As such, to speak English faster, unless is our natural pace of speech, is not a medal-worthy accomplishment in language mastery and adds no value.

The most important thing in all languages is to be clear, such that words are pronounced with clarity enough to communicate what one intends.

Even natural speakers have to adjust to make themselves understood, as that is the purpose of language.

I recall watching a video clip of a member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), Hon David Linden who was completely not understood by the Conservative Party member, Sir Paul Beresford, because he spoke in a strong accent from Glasgow City (Glaswegian Accent). Amidst the variety of how we speak the goal is to be understood.

Language is not simply for parading rhetoric, it is for getting problems solved.

We have many masters of rhetoric already who do not get anything done for the common good.

This necessity of clarity is also a burden even locally, where many people, especially in cities, tend to form a certain way of speaking to identify with the place, such as in Dar es Salaam.

Many of us have surely heard that people change their accents after a few days of being in Dar es Salaam.

These are issues to be addressed from grassroots levels, such that we are all confident with the way we speak.

It is high time we love ourselves and our people, and not cast bad words on people who make us proud just because of the foreign language, which all things being good in the past, should have not been in our records as a necessary means of communication.

It is mental slavery to think of another language as superior to our languages, and that we are incapable of doing great things if we do not speak English as Europeans.

If the criteria was English most of those honours would have gone to other countries and not ours.

This is as well a challenge for our ministry of education, to revisit the methods of teaching and learning foreign languages in our country, such that the expectations are not to clear an accent, but to have real mastery necessary to communicate clearly and solve problems around us.

The government also needs to explore more opportunities for young Tanzanians to work and study abroad so as to broaden their horizons and add our numbers in the international community by the quality we bring across.