In a trending video from the Honest Bunch podcast in Nigeria, a guest, Dr. Olakunle Soriyan, who is an author and leadership coach, stated emphatically that English as a language is overrated. He started by telling the story of an intelligent young man who ended up as a taxi driver because he failed English as a subject in secondary school several times. Hence, he couldn’t gain admission into a higher institution despite the fact that he performed excellently in other subjects such as Economics, Government, and Commerce. His dream of going to the university to study Law was jettisoned.
According to Dr. Soriyan, English as a lingua franca should be strictly for communication and not for sophistication. He cited many examples where the best minds lose opportunities because of their use of English. Meanwhile, Africans hire expatriates who barely speak English as the focus is on their expertise and not on their ability to speak English. How come the same standards are not used for fellow Africans?
He also addressed the use of pidgin. According to Dr. Soriyan, he defines pidgin as “a proof of a people’s struggle with an original language.” Pidgin shouldn’t be an embarrassment because every language has its own version of pidgin. After all, the best coaches in the world don’t speak good English, yet they train English men who go on to win competitions because everyone is focused on what they have to offer and not on the sophistication of their English.
“The most prosperous countries in the world speak only one language, but the poorest countries have multiple languages because we are busy trying to master another person’s language. In Africa, perfection in English is a standard of progress in society, but the English man has not held the Chinese to that same standard. It is we (Africans) who are holding ourselves to that standard,” Dr. Soriyan said.
To balance his assertion, he said, “It’s too late to cancel the English language, but it shouldn’t be a determinant of progress in our country. People can go and learn English in our schools, but it shouldn’t be part of our grading.”
