My Reading Ability As A Tinage.

Ghetto is full of fun and one of the major challenges faced by kids in the Ghetto is their inability to read, write, and speak good English. We are fond of speaking either our native language(Vernacular) or Nigerian pidgin.

Source

My case was involved, I could not read, write, nor speak English fluently. Irrespective of what language we speak at home, nobody will be there to monitor our activities but immediately we arrive at school the story will change.

In my school, speaking of vernacular is highly prohibited. Students had been canned up to the extent that, whenever we are being canned for speaking vernacular, we don't feel pain anymore and as a result, a new rule was introduced/established.

The rules stated that whoever speaks vernacular will pay a sum of #5 and the amazing thing about the rule was that, the more you speak vernacular, the more you pay.

My food allowance was just #10, and imagining myself speaking vernacular twice a day would indicate I am going to go on an empty stomach for the day, so I rather keep mute all through the school hours.

During this period, I loved to stay out of trouble because if any issue came up and I was asked to explain what transpired I wouldn't be able to say anything, and as a result, a stubborn me became very quiet and humble. If you slap me, step on my toes, or insult me, I will keep smiling and postpone such student beating to the closing hour.

In my school, students were arranged according to their level of brilliance. The rows were arranged in below average, average, and above average and I belonged to the rows of students with below-average capacity. As if all the embarrassment wasn't enough, every Thursday, the entire school will have reading from the English Macmillan, where each student will have to come to the front of the class to read the English Macmillan.

When it's my turn to read, I don't bother laying my hands on the Macmillans because I know I can't read it, so I just go straight to the teacher, he will cane me and ask me to go back to my seat. When the embarrassment was becoming unbearable, I told a friend to help me do the reading while I committed everything to my memory. I could not wait for Thursday so that I could surprise every student in the class.

Here comes Thursday and it was my turn to read, I collected the Macmillan English Premier with some level of confidence, and everyone was surprised. I could recall that we were reading about "AGBO", and I started reciting what I had committed to the memory:-

• "Agbo lives in the town of the lagoon, he is eight years old, and every morning he goes to school, but in the afternoon, he stays at home, and so on"

They were all amazed and got carried away but my teacher was observing me closely and when I was supposed to flip to the next page of the Macmillans, and I did not, it was at that moment my teacher noticed I was reciting from my head and not reading from the book. l was punished but it was minimal as compared to when I was unable to read anything from the Macmillan.

After the school activities, my fellow students started applauding me and asked how was I able to commit all that stuff to my memory, wow you have a retentive memory bro, and lots more. I felt happy and I can't explain the joy I felt that day. I was about to step out of the school premises when I heard my class teacher calling my name repeatedly, I walked in his direction and I was a bit scared, he said to me, you don't have to be scared, you amaze me today but at the same time, you can get someone to help you do the reading so that, the best in you can come to reality, I nodded my head as usual and left.

With his words of encouragement, I devoted more time to my studies and the improvement came, and as time went by, reading and speaking ceased being a challenge.

Thanks for stopping by.