Illiteracy in Our Society Essay
Illiteracy in Our Society
It was one of the days I will never forget in my life time. My father was very sick in Abeokuta; my village, where we both live together with my mother. The people in our community have tried their hand on one thing or the other to help him, but we are left with the only option of taking him to the hospital in the city. My mother is to go first to the city and inform my uncle about this incident, so that my uncle could help take my father to the hospital. Has my mother cannot read nor write and cannot communicate in English language; which is the only language spoken by the healthcare workers at the city hospital. Because of my mother astonishment to the situation of my father, the people in our community advise my mother not to go to the city alone but to go with me so that I could encourage her. Then I was twelve years old, never go to school and also don’t know how to read or write nor speak any other language than the one I was brought up with in Abeokuta.
We board the bus going to the city. The drama started when we got to the city, when various bus-stop were been announced by the bus conductor and my mother could not recognize the one we are to stop at. She has twice visited my uncle with my father in the city but I have never. We came down at one of the bus-stop and now to locate my uncle house yet another problem for her. She told me she recognizes the name of the street my uncle lives in by seeing it and started checking names on all street name’s poles. My uncle lives at ‘Smith Sunday Street’. My mother truly knows the name of the street but only by symbols of the alphabets if she could see it, but couldn’t pronounce or read any. We begin going from one street pole to the other, wandering in one place till the day break. All those that we make attempt to talk to didn’t understand our language and even find it difficult to know what help we need. When it was night time, the people in the area took us to the
It was one of the days I will never forget in my life time. My father was very sick in Abeokuta; my village, where we both live together with my mother. The people in our community have tried their hand on one thing or the other to help him, but we are left with the only option of taking him to the hospital in the city. My mother is to go first to the city and inform my uncle about this incident, so that my uncle could help take my father to the hospital. Has my mother cannot read nor write and cannot communicate in English language; which is the only language spoken by the healthcare workers at the city hospital. Because of my mother astonishment to the situation of my father, the people in our community advise my mother not to go to the city alone but to go with me so that I could encourage her. Then I was twelve years old, never go to school and also don’t know how to read or write nor speak any other language than the one I was brought up with in Abeokuta.
We board the bus going to the city. The drama started when we got to the city, when various bus-stop were been announced by the bus conductor and my mother could not recognize the one we are to stop at. She has twice visited my uncle with my father in the city but I have never. We came down at one of the bus-stop and now to locate my uncle house yet another problem for her. She told me she recognizes the name of the street my uncle lives in by seeing it and started checking names on all street name’s poles. My uncle lives at ‘Smith Sunday Street’. My mother truly knows the name of the street but only by symbols of the alphabets if she could see it, but couldn’t pronounce or read any. We begin going from one street pole to the other, wandering in one place till the day break. All those that we make attempt to talk to didn’t understand our language and even find it difficult to know what help we need. When it was night time, the people in the area took us to the
Cited: Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue” Originally Published as “Under Western Eyes” Three Penny Review, 1990, pp. 315-320. Print. Kozol, Jonathan. “Illiterate America” Anchor Press/ Doubleday Publication. Garden City, New York, 1985. Print. Roman, Sarah Poff. “Illiteracy and Older Adults: Individual and Societal Implications.” Educational Gerontology 30.2 (2004): 79-93. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO Web. May 2, 2012.