So Many Times it's Harder to Come Up With a Title, The Reset Language Epic


So a few hours ago I was on a phone call with my brother who's been living in States for almost a decade now, has come to visit twice though. Seeing as we rarely do those but instead just regularly chat on watsapp, it was quite the trip realizing how much of an American accent he now has.


He Shall remain faceless, kind of looks like nathanmars though. By Pexels, CCO, pixabay.com

Of course you know I had to make a joke out of it, a joke he not only acknowledged to be true, but went even further claiming that he probably won't remember how to speak our native tongue by the time he comes back, seeing he practically has no one to practice with over there.

Ok there are a few of our cousins in the same state as him but sadly, since they've lived there much longer than he has and been there since they were pre-teen years, they won't be much help. lol

But I guess that's just how it goes when you spend so much time abroad though without practicing. So many times I'd seen or heard it happen to others but for some very strange reason, it somehow surprised me that it also happened to him.

I mean, sure he wasn't the most proficient with our native tongue to begin with, but none of us is as it's a very hard language to master, a language that has rules for about every situation, every context, and whatnot.

It's quite frustrating at times to be honest but it's what makes it so beautiful and rich. In retrospect, I shouldn't have skipped all those Kinyarwanda classes in High school. I was told I'd regret it when I'd get older and here I am now. Sometimes I can almost hear my Kinya teacher yelling; I told you so! Or for the sake of today's topic, Nari nara kubwiye!

Yup, just like with most traditions and languages in most nations, sadly the youngins in my country tend to run after what's "modern," and pay little to no mind to the "cultural trivialities" until they grow up, learn the importance of knowing, respecting one's heritage and making sure all of the above finds it's way to the next generation. Tragically, I fall in that category, used to.

Times have changed and now, every once in a while I try to learn something new about my country, it's culture, heritage and the mythology, specially it's mythology. Still, the language, not so much. Not in literary type of depth at least, as that would demand a whole new type of commitment. But who knows, maybe eventually.

Anyways, I'm getting a bit sidetracked. So yeah, my brother did admit sharing the regret of not having placed enough importance on polishing his Kinyarwanda when he had the chance., something he plans to change when once he's back.

At least for me, although not academically gifted, I do still get to practice and improve on it on a daily basis, which I'm grateful for and don't intend to take for granted anymore!

Other than the linguistic topic, we did get into a few more topics during that 49 minutes call that was cut short when the weather and network started acting up. We'll be resuming it sometime this week though, looking forward to it!

But damn do I miss the dude, I can't wait to see him again!

PEACE!!




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I have always loved languages. I have an aptitude for understanding them, but I find that I don't have a lot of opportunities to learn new languages. I speak only very broken Spanish which I learned in school despite the fact that my mother is bilingual. I think being an American is sometimes a curse. As so many other nations are at least familiar with English, we are very seldomly challenged with the need to learn new languages. At least other English speaking countries are more exposed to non-english speaking neighbors.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I hope you see your brother soon and that he gets a chance to practice Kinyarwanda.

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At least you stay in good contact with him. It's not always easy when you are so far apart to keep a good relationship so it's not all bad. Hard to stay native in a different culture and a busy life. A lot of things like accent and language do fall away unfortunately.

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