Images received from app websites and a screenshot of one of the apps and put them into a collage used on Canva.

Bawo ni! Hello!

Welcome to my second post about my inquiry project on learning Yoruba, one of the many languages from Nigeria. I last left you with my inquiry project plan for how I will be learning Yoruba. I started off strong. I mentioned how I found the app LangaApp, which has a layout similar to Duolingo with interactive lessons and games that are perfect for beginners like me. Level 1 started with learning essential words like mi (my), wa (our/us), omi (water) and ounjẹ (food). I passed and moved on to level 2, learning fun (give), o (you), ẹ jọ (honorific please), jọ̀ (please) and the adverb ni. Like in French (vous) and Spanish (vosotros), Yoruba has honorific words for when you are speaking to someone formally and with respect. So, putting that all together, I can say my first sentence: jọ̀ fun mi ni ounjẹ (please give me food) or ẹ jọ fun mi ni ounjẹ (respectfully please give me food).

I was starting to feel good about my comprehension; however, after completing level 2 and going to level 3, the app said, “You have to activate your account to start this level.” This seems to be an issue, with the app reviews saying the same thing. I’ll also leave a review and contact the app developers to get that sorted. In the meantime, I downloaded two other apps called Bluebird Yoruba and Yoruba+. Unfortunately for Yoruba+, you have to pay to access the lessons and only have free access to everyday sayings, numbers and the Yoruba alphabet, which has helped work on the accent. The app also gives me a new word daily, which is fun to incorporate into my learning. Today’s word is ẹgbẹ, which means peer. As for Bluebird Yoruba, I haven’t thoroughly tried it yet; I have just been looking over the lessons, but I will definitely start this for my weekly lesson. In my next post, I will also find some music in Yoruba and share what I discover!