This English Langauge - My journey

This English language.

On January 15th 2014, I put on here my first post. Little did I know that this was going to turn into a nest, that I would come to love and occasionally drop thoughts onto. At the beginning, I wouldn't have said that I loved writing. I was in campus then, still figuring what i was about. I didn't even have the English to begin with. I didn't grow up in an environment where English, proper English,was used to communicate. Even in schools that I went to, primary & high school, we had to practically be forced to speak in English in an attempt to boost our grades and also manage to articulate words when addressing a teacher. It was a norm to see fellow classmates wearing the 'disk' around their necks as punishment for speaking in Swahili. My dad was a teacher and a Call Centre Operator at the same time. These, he did in a Medical Training Institute. My mother on the other hand was a housewife but through my dad's aggressive teacher attitude, she came to value education, and most importantly English, as a language that we'd sometimes use in the house. So basically, that was my introduction to the English language.

Years went by and life changed. My family, minus my folks, moved to a slum and it's there that the use of slang intensified. These were my teenage years, the years in which I was super adventurous, out to live life to my full potential ...and be rebellious while at it. I spoke so much 'Sheng' but having had some background with English and also being a teacher's daughter made me adore & perform well in English classes at High School. I developed deep love for novels not only by John Kariamiti but also other local & international authors, storybooks - those Ladybird books, comics like Supa Strikaz, etc and these, without a doubt, boosted my love for English. Despite this developing love, I still was among a clique of girls who'd refer to the other girls in school who'd constantly converse in English as 'cool kids' or 'they just looking to show off' while deep down I envied and wanted to speak and be as fluent as they were!

Fast forward to campus. Things took a drastic turn. Drastic because I wasn't ready for the change. As much as I read more, I couldn't bring myself to speak fluently. All my years of mastering slang and sheng didn't prepare me for this phase. I went to a very prestigious private local university and in this environment, life literally introduced me to the elite society; the powerful, privileged and skillful lot. The way people dressed, carried themselves around, ate, spoke, walked was all different from the carefree way that I was used to. I didn't want to altogether stop the culture that I've lived in but I wanted to also learn these new way of life that I'd come to fancy. Speaking English, without hiccups, was top of my list. 

First year into campus, I got a Call Centre / Help-Desk / Customer Care job. Is that a family thing? I don't know! Puzzles me too! I asked myself the same question. My dad did the same job - in a learning institution!! So this job made me a liaison between students, parents and the school administration. Among other tasks, I had to make announcements (one of the things I dreaded & hated in equal measure!). I also had to answer phone calls from within and outside the campus and most times I'd mess up by probably dropping a 'niaje..' or 'si he said this' or again 'Me I think'. Practice makes perfect they say. It sure does. I slowly but surely learnt to express myself not only verbally but also on paper. I really did take on the challenge to speak and write better. I read lots of blogs. I learnt to channel my thoughts via writing, I started keeping a journal, I started texting using complete words and would find myself more drawn to people who would text back in proper English and using the right figures of speech, etc. I read more novels and even when I went home, I spoke in English and guess what that got me labelled? 'That cool kid', the girl 'looking to show off'. Funny how the world operates, right?

At what point I'm I on this English language journey?

Well, first and foremost, I'm not the best at it but I am work in progress. There are people who write and speak marvelous English. These people, I look up to a lot. I'm a social person and when in my zone I get to interact with lots people, effortlessly. I dunno if it was fate but I found myself in the marketing field which most people say requires talkative, open and bubbly character - which I am. My experience with marketing (and sales) exposed me to a wider platform to improve and practice English more. I got to develop my communication skills both in direct and indirect ways. Conversations on phone, emails, texts, one-on-one - in all this, I have noted a huge growth. I'm still a lover of books to this day, I roam around the web in search of blogs to read on, I still keep a journal - which is a huge and very special part of my life. The writing bit has the most growth and you can actually tell by going through the posts I've put up from 2014.

Finally, English being among the two official languages of Kenya is one of the most important things I love about my homeland. I love that we get an introduction to this great language from an early stage and we grown into it. The language is used by most countries in the world and it is, without a doubt, one of the unifying factors the world has for it's occupants. There are still some countries that use their native language and haven't entirely embraced English and as much as this enhances preservation of culture etc, it creates a barrier, language barrier to be precise, and this makes it hard for relations to be formed with the outside world.

This 'queens language' is amazing and I enjoy it. I'll continue to source ways to improve and in the event that this happens, I will write better because this writing, expressing myself, is something I don't think I will ever stop.