Not All about Speaking Good English but Speaking Paradigm, Values and Culture of the People in Society

Recently, somebody wrote a comment in one of my videos and said, you are criticizing Biafra and pastors, is that what you are called to do? You stupid, foolish Yoruba man saying you are a man of God. What kind of man of God are you? You cannot even speak English very well. When I finished reading that comment, I said well I cannot speak English but funny enough with the kind of English that I don’t speak, I get to speak to people in societies, countries, settings, political and economic than you, am are not even talking about you, bring your Pastors, GOs and Bishops forward. Tell me any one of them as much and well English they speak in Nigeria the one that will be able to speak where I speak and is able to command the authority I command.

You see, it is not all about speaking good English but speaking paradigm, values and culture of the people in society.

Ben Okoh: First, you were not part of the society because being part of society means that you have to be considered an individual that is fit to be involved in persistent interaction with that society. So, if in the first place you were not considered as somebody who was a person or a person to even consider therefore you are not really part of the society. The society did not initially recognize you as a person let alone as somebody that could make a sort of contribution you made in many ways. Therefore, the question is how did you overcome that part of it, in terms of not being part of the society but you were able to make contributions and much impact in Ukraine?

Dr. Sunday Adelaja: The fact that, as a foreigner and somebody that is not even a citizen of Ukraine you are not recognized definitely, because I am not even a citizen anyway. It is one thing for you to be a foreigner but when you are a foreigner who is black skin, you are hugely disadvantaged. Then if you are a foreigner who is dark skin, from Africa and a Nigerian you have a huge disadvantage right there.

I do not want to be a part of the society that want to contribute, I wanted to be a part of the society that would not just contribute but would direct the direction of the society. That is what I understand by being part of the society. It is about directing the direction and policies that guide the society.

Now, how did I overcome all of that? I did a few things to overcome that, one of the things I did was recognized the fact that I was disadvantaged and limited such as speaking their language like them. Moreover, for them to take me serious I needed to speak like them at least the way they will understand and even respect me.

The second thing I had to do even when I started to speak the language, I discovered that it was not enough to command respect. Therefore, I needed to understand their culture and communicate culturally.