…”School is not a scam”, he admonishes Nigerian youths
By Wole Balogun
S.A Media to VC
Young Akano Johnson Adewale of the
Department of Linguistics and Languages, Federql University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) who recently won the Endangered Language Project Internship Award with Canadian monetary value of cad$3,600 , has advised Nigerian youths to perish the immature thought that schooling is a scam.
Johnson, a fresh FUOYE graduate with Second Class Upper (2.1), has made the upwardly mobile lvory Tower really proud by adding another glowing colour to its shining reputation.
He has just joined the hall of fame of several other students and fresh graduates of the institution who have brought honour to the citadel of learning by blazing the trail in their respective academic fields.
In a chat with the University team, Johnson revealed that he got inspired by the sound teaching he got from his lecturers in his department and made painstaking efforts to conduct more research in his field and this paid off.
We bring you his success story:
“My admission to study Linguistics at FUOYE was received with great enthusiasm by myself and my family. I immediately developed a great interest in it because it deals with ” language ” which is inevitable in human day-to-day life.
“In our first and second year, we were introduced to the different areas of linguistics we can specialize in. Thankful to resourceful lecturers like Prof Opoola, Mrs. Kelechi, and Mr. Awoniyi among others, who gave us a solid foundation in these branches of linguistics. At that time, I couldn’t pinpoint where I wanted to be, but it wasn’t long before I decided where I wanted to be.
“The journey started during my third year when I read about UNESCO’s Atlas of world languages. The publication established that there are over 6000 languages in the world; and over 43% of these languages are endangered, under-studied, and severely threatened by extinction. It further established that Nigeria has over 500 languages and over 40% of these languages are undocumented, endangered, under-studied, and severely threatened by extinction.
“Language endangerment often leads to an irrecoverable loss of unique cultural, historical, and spiritual knowledge essential for language speakers’ survival, and as linguists, It limits our knowledge and answers to many questions about linguistic theories and language studies. The conclusion of the publication emphasized the need for more linguists to be involved in language documentation and description. This gave me a boost and I got really interested in this area of linguistics and prompting me to make up my mind to be a catalyst in making sure I document and save as many as possible Nigerian endangered languages and also contribute to the field of linguistics in general.
“So, I came up with a plan, I was going to use social media to link up with big players in the area of Language documentation and description. I set up my LinkedIn and started connecting with different people all over the world. No breakthrough until my 400 level when I messaged a scholar in the field on LinkedIn and I explained to him my interest in the particular area of linguistics. He replied that he was leaving for his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto in Canada in September of 2022, but if I could come over to his place he would teach me about Linguistics fieldwork so that if the opportunity presents itself I can gain my first real language experience, and get exposed to computational linguistics tools like Praat, Elan, Flex that aid effective language documentation and description.
“ Fortunately for me, ASUU went on strike that particular week, I told my parents about where I wanted to go, and they gave me the go-ahead and I traveled down there. On getting there, he took his time to walk me through the basics, and by June, 2022, he took me to meet a Professor of linguistics who has been documenting the Olukunmi, Owe, and many other Nigerian languages since 2012. The meeting went well, and in about 2 weeks we got a call from her about another funding she just received from the Living Tongue Institute for Endangered Languages, Oregon, USA.
“ She needed to make a follow-up documentation of the Olukunmi language in Delta State to update the dictionary she created for the community. The call led to what became my first documentation experience and we spent a month in Delta State.
“Presently, I have four funded language documentation and fieldwork experience. Immediately, we came back, ASUU still not looking at ending the strike and I started looking for international experience in LDD. Not long, I saw an advertisement from Living Tongue; an endangered language institute in the USA for an unpaid internship position. I applied and I got accepted as the only African. The opportunity gave me a big leverage of how things are done in the outside world, during that time I learnt a lot about endangered languages, dictionary making, language documentation, and revitalization. I worked collaboratively with linguists from different continents of the world. I was with them from October, 2022 till March 2023.
“This year April, I saw the call for an application for a paid internship with Endangered Language Project which I applied to. At the end of the application, we were informed that over 300 applied worldwide for just five positions. Not long, I got an interview request from them which went well and they had to commend me for the level of experience I have had as a recent graduate. A few weeks after, I got the mail that I have been picked for the three months job with a pay of $3,600. It was a thing of joy for me; especially as graduates nowadays have resolved to erroneously have the impression that school is a scam. I believe this is just the starting point for me. I eventually look forward to contributing more to language documentation efforts and also revitalizing our indigenous languages to prevent them from death or extinction, an excited Johnson assured.
Speaking about how FUOYE’s training made him, he said:”The department of Linguistics in FUOYE is doing a lot of good work to give us a solid foundation. They provided quality lecturers who made our success their responsibility. Without any doubt, I believe the linguistic at FUOYE will continue to produce top graduates.
I also wish to appreciate our amiable Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abayomi Sunday Fasina and his very efficient management team for providing for us an enabling environment. For academic excellence. Since the assumption of duty by Prof. Fasina, we have been having an uninterrupted academic calendar in spite of the inevitable ASUU strike. The management is ensured building of new classrooms and overall welfare of the students. I really appreciate FUOYE, “ he said emphatically.
