LET'S LEARN BASIC FRENCH (JAN 12, 2010)

Either by divine or political design, Ghana finds itself surrounded by French-speaking countries. But, sad to say, it appears that most Ghanaians, even at the official level, are reluctant to learn French, a development which, to say the least, has deprived Ghanaians of the opportunity to interact more with people from neighbouring countries.
A tutor of French at the Ghana National College in Cape Coast, Nana Akomea, in an interview with the Chronicle, hit the nail right on the head when he said Ghanaians had been failing to utilise the many opportunities that abound in West Africa because of their inability to speak French.
“It is a linguistic and cultural handicap facing many women and men of scholarship and leadership in Ghana, to the disadvantage of economic and strategic positions in the sub-region,” he lamented, noting that since 1963 no Ghanaian had become the Secretary-General of the African Union (AU) Commission.
Nana Akomea’s lamentations are well founded and it behoves the government and, indeed, every Ghanaian, to inculcate the learning of French into our daily activities, right from the basic level of the educational ladder.
The DAILY GRAPHIC thinks that regional integration, a policy that has been espoused by successive governments, has not been attained partly because on a person-to-person basis, Ghanaians cannot interact with citizens from other countries in the sub-region. And if individuals in the sub-region cannot get along well because of the language barrier, we don’t see how the whole region can get along as one body.
What is significant is that while Ghanaians shy away from learning French, citizens of Francophone countries go to all lengths to learn English so that they can interact with people from Anglophone countries.
That is why many people from Francophone countries can speak passable English and get by with it, while those of us from Ghana cannot speak passable French, even those of us who studied it up to some stage in secondary school.
So desirous are people from Francophone countries to speak English that when the Togolese national team encountered that unfortunate incident in Angola, Ghanaian journalists were able to speak with some of the players in English to get first-hand information and also know about their reaction to the incident.
And wasn’t that beautiful?
We pause to ask: Had Ghanaian players been caught in any challenges, how many of them could have spoken with French-speaking journalists?
Let us, as a nation, resolve to turn over a new leaf and make the learning of French, both at the formal and informal levels, a priority, so that we will not be found wanting when the need arises.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that if we start from the basic level of education by teaching our nursery and kindergarten pupils the rudiments of French, we can make a headway in our effort to ‘Frenchify’ ourselves and our country.
Our senior high schools and universities have language centres which can carry on the task from those levels, with the
objective of ensuring that everybody who leaves SHS should have a working knowledge of French.
When that is achieved, Ghanaians can then interact more with their counterparts from Francophone countries and also seize the numerous opportunities that abound in those countries.
Then, and only then, can we talk about sub-regional integration in the real sense of the word.
Let us act now, for now is the opportune time.