Volume 50 Issue 6 - June 2012 : Others

 

 It would undoubtedly be a wonderful experience if people were able to live anywhere in the world with less communication barriers.

However, not many Batswana fit the definition of being a global citizen when it comes to mastering the world’ languages.

Many would be frustrated to death were they to wake up one day and find themselves in other African country where neither Setswana nor English are spoken.

Finding oneself outside of Africa where none of these languages are existent would drive them to oblivion, draining them of their last ounces of hope.

It would surely be an unpleasant way to start one’s day - suddenly finding oneself in a situation where one is linguistically disconnected from the people around. 

Many would most probably resort to some form of sign language to be able to, at least, get through the day.

And in trying to find their way around, top on their priority list would be finding a way back to their home country, where they would once again feel a sense of belonging - language-wise.

A few Batswana are, however, finding it necessary to come to speed with languages spoken the world over.

One such Motswana is Kitso Mosiieman. Mosiieman would of course have difficulty communicating with people in certain parts of the world.

However, being a proficient French speaker, she would fare well in any Francophone country.

Mosiieman first came across French in 1983 while doing her first year at the University of Botswana. And one of the reason for choosing French as one of the courses she would study was her desire to travel the world.

With the course offering students the opportunity to travel to France for two months, she would not want to miss such an opportunity to turn her dreams into reality. Notwithstanding the difficulty she encountered in learning the language, she would not give up, let alone not for the benefits she would reap thereafter.

At the end of her first year, she was indeed sent to France, and that, without doubt deepened her love for French.

To put a cherry on top, Mosiieman was again at the end of her stay at UB offered a scholarship to study French in France. That surely was an opportunity not to be missed and fully utilised.

“I did a course called Française Langue Etrangere (FLE), which basically means The teaching of French as a second language. It was a difficult course, more especially because of the fact that French is a language that has gender. It was so difficult that one of our professors once asked why we Anglophones bothered learning French,” she recalls.

For one to speak French well, they have to know, among others, the gender of nouns in sentences.

For Mosiieman, speaking other languages is not only to bridge the communication gap but such also offers one the opportunity to know other people’s cultures since culture is embedded in language.

“Negative attitudes by some Batswana towards languages spoken by tribes they do not belong to is also an impediment in learning other people’s languages. We lose out on the opportunity to learn because we look down upon other languages,” she observes.

If Batswana were well-travelled, Mosiieman reckons they would develop some keenness to learning other languages.

“And the fact that Batswana are very insular is of great concern. You even wonder how many have passports, to say the least,” wonders Mosiieman.

Besides French, Mosiieman speaks three other languages - English, Sesotho and Setswana. She came to speak Sesotho as a result of her mother being a Mosotho.     

Having at one point attended school in Lesotho, she has become as fluent in the language as those born and fully bred in Lesotho.

Multilingualism or the condition of being able to understand and speak several languages is fast becoming engrained in society.

Gone are the days when children would come into contact with a second language upon entering primary school. Although such scenarios still exist, they are in the minority but are rapidly dwindling.

The importance of one being multilingual cannot be over-emphasised. Some great scholars and linguists such as Vivian Cook, a professor of Applied Linguistics at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, liken it to possessing a second soul. They say a different language is a different vision of life.

They describe it as a personal enrichment and a passport to other cultures; it broadens one’s horizons, exposing them to a whole new world.

Multilingualism surely has great benefits. Researchers have found multilinguals to possess more creative thinking as well as problem solving skills as compared to monolinguals or those with knowledge of only one language.

They have also found multilingualism to enhance intellectual growth in that it also engenders an ability to think more flexibly.

Also, in addition to not facing communication difficulties while in a foreign country, multilinguals often have a deeper understanding of issues relating to other traditions as they have the benefit of being able to understand material put forth through or in a foreign language, presented in either written or spoken form .

Multilingualism has also been found to promote tolerance and open-mindedness in terms of accepting people from various walks of life given the fact that exposure to a language means to a certain extent exposure to the culture related to that particular language.

Multilingualism has also been found to have some economic benefits attached to it. The knowledge of one language is seen as being insufficient for the business world.

According to www.euractiv.com, there is growing need for businesses to ensure that their employees are multilingual since, “additional language skills, in combination with the relevant inter-cultural skills, can provide a competitive edge” in the cut-throat business world.

This is particularly true for those businesses intending to go global or those already operating globally.

The ability of businesses to employ multilingual staff is said to dramatically improve the company’s ability to manage its interaction with its customers, thereby impacting positively on its efforts to retain its customers and even win more.

On a more personal level, employees who can converse with customers in their native languages are preferred by such customers in their dealings with a particular business.

So, given the obvious need for people to understand and speak a couple of languages, it is unfathomable how those with knowledge of only one language will survive in today’s fast-paced environment. 

From mere observation, many Batswana seem to have embraced, either willfully or forcefully through the education system, the notion of multilingualism.

However, it may appear that for many, their multilingualism is anchored on three languages; namely, English, Setswana, which are official languages, and a mother tongue, for those to whom Setswana is not a mother tongue.

Given such a scenario, one may wonder how many Batswana would fare well in terms of communicating easily in countries where none of the languages spoken locally are in use.

 

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