Importance Of English In Kenya

The English language began its climb to world dominance with the rise of the British Empire in the 16th century. During this time English began to spread as the worlds lingua franca for business and trade. With the support of the United States, which at the time was one of the most successful nations in history, english was able to overthrow all previous lingua francas. However, english should not be considered as the “gateway to the world”. Although the english language is widely- spoken around the world, making english language the official language of the world will lead to diminishing cultural diversity.

In this research, I’m going to focusing on the English as a language is being taught in many countries oversea today including Thailand. In fact, you’ll be surprising to know that English is required for many of the students in many countries. Unfortunately, it is not necessarily taught as well as it could be because of heavy teaching load, class sizes and adequate technology. Learning an English today still's has been challenging for many countries and specifically in Thailand. In Thailand, the student often gets too overwhelmed with English and mentally tune out in the classroom because English was their least favorite subjects. On the other hand, the students don’t have a resource at school or they don’t have it enough. Furthermore, many students just go to English class and switch back to Thai as soon as they out of school. English isn't used locally in Thailand. Although, there still a lot students continue care about English language because English has been the most ordinarily utilized language internationally and the language of traffic control and the majority of academic journals. It’s the most common language on the internet and the language that travelers use to communicate with different native speakers.

During the time period 1850-1914, even though Britain imperializing, Kenya was, in turn, very beneficial for the inhabitants of Kenya. However, the direct rule of Britain put Kenya through a massive transition from being independent to being colonial dominant, in which the natives of Kenya had lesser rights than did before and were treated inhumanely. Before being imperialized, Kenya was already divided into forty-two tribes. The two main kinfolks to be known are the Masai and the Kikuyu. These tribes helped in making the country's diversity, rich culture and heritage. Nonetheless, Kenya didn’t have much global contact; however, they did trade with the Arab merchants but kept it limited because they wanted to preserve their traditional

Europeans westernized all parts of Kenya. Europeans tried to make Kenya into a hierarchal government. However, this was a huge problem for the Kikuyu people. The Queen or King is equivalent to a Chief, but the Kikuyu people don’t have chiefs. Therefore, the British chose a leader for them. This created great problems for them and destabilize their country. The Kikuyu people refused to work for money especially from the British, until the British created taxes which forced Kenyans to search for work. While the fathers searched for work the children and mothers went off to school created by the British. The Europeans made the Kenyans learn to read and turned them into missionaries once this was accomplish and required them to spread the word of the bible.

A very important component for success in life is to be informed on the world around we live in. Education for the Europeans was seen as more important than those who were African. In 1955, over 33% of European students received secondary education while 1% of Africans did. Required for children aged 7-15 in Europe, and not required at all for Africans, proves that British Colonial rule did not see a reason for the native Kenyans to be well educated [10]. Just like education, African religion was put below European religion. In 1962, the protestant religion stood at 7% of 8.6 million while indigenous beliefs was at 80%. In 2002 the population was 30.8 million, and the protestant religion took up 38% while indigenous beliefs only took up 26% [8]. Protestant religion beginning as the vast minority compared to the African beliefs, ended up 12% higher than the former majority. As the protestant religion spreads out and their followers increase, the indigenous beliefs followers became less known. This intense rise in British influence regarding religion on the people of Kenya is an example of how native African rituals and beliefs were fading away and becoming weaker under British Colonial rule. Between the underlying reasons as to why education was required for Europeans and not for Africans, and the harsh increase in

As a matter of fact, multilingualism is usually an unavoidable reality in most countries where English is used as a second language. In Nigeria, for instance, due to colonial origin, every educated person, or any other person who regularly interacts with people from other ethnic groups usually speak two languages: his mother’s tongue (ethnic language) and English. That’s why different ethnic groups in the country have found in English a common means of communication and identity.

Kenya’s population consists of about 39 million people. Unlike most countries in Africa, Kenya is very diverse that consists of almost 43 different

Kenya is also home to large population of Europeans, Arabs, Indians and Pakistanis, which many came to the country in the 19th century. The most widely spoken language, Swahili is basically Bantu impart with Arabic, Asian and European elements. Swahili is used as the home language of Kenya along with English, the official

The writer goes to explain that this type of cultural contact negatively affected the individuals, because speaking in Gĩkữyữ represented his culture. When these two items came together, language and culture, it represented the individuals' identity and self-image. He illustrates that he believed that language, rather than history or culture, was the key explanatory structure for human life and the enabling condition of human consciousness. In the essay, he presents the choice of language and the use to which language is put is central to people's definition of themselves in relation to the entire universe. He portrays to the reader that when Britain attacked Kenya physically to take control, it also attacked the cultural root of Kenya. Thiong'o makes this clear to the reader to demonstrate that alienation of Kenya's own culture resulted in the loss of the language and culture in Kenya. He also argues that this situation caused a disharmony in Kenyan's self-image.

Kenya and British Colonialism didn't work together too well. When the British colonized Africa they did it without permission and that didn't make anyone happy. Their government was humiliated. They had enormous out economic problems. Also they had religious conflicts as well.

Kenya is one of the only countries in Africa who has a stable government. Kenya has a total literacy rate of eighty five and one percent. If you break it down the literacy of males is ninety and six percent, and the females percent is seventy-nine and seven percent. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Kenya is one thousand seven hundred the reason why it's so low is because when the literacy rates are high the GDP is low. In the Republic of Kenya all citizens can vote at the age eighteen and up. Kenya has been independent from Great Britain in 1963. Kenya has wasted about all of their money on school to educate the children. In Kenya the girls have to get prepare to get married instead of having an education. Early marriages are very common in rural parts of Kenya and a marriage brings a dowry to the brides family. A dowry is money or

Though Kenya’s impoverished and underdeveloped conditions were certainly not highlighted in the film, I believe it is important to observe. These conditions are best displayed by the state of the primary school. In the film, students were forced to sit 5 students to a desk and were crammed into a tiny room. Moreover, the Kenyans were highly grateful for the concept of free education. This highly contrasts the state of American schools, which are typically well funded. Americans are used to the concept of free education, so much so, that people now desire free higher education. I believe this theme is important to note because it is the key difference between the Kenyan and American

The majority of colonial and post-colonial African literature has been written in European languages -- a direct result of colonialism. “For this reason, the Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o argues that to rid African literature of the legacy of colonialism, African writers must begin writing in the native languages” (Behrent http://landow.stg.brown.edu/post/poldiscourse/behrent.html). Ngugi felt that this literature could not relate to the majority of Africans who spoke or read a variety of native African languages. Ngugi began writing his novels in his native Gikuyu language so that he could "reach his African audience and to combat the imperialist 'spiritual subjugation' of the African peoples by the means of language” (Behrent http://landow.stg.brown.edu/post/poldiscourse/behrent.html). To Ngugi, the English language was imposed onto Africans as a way for the colonists to erase the pre-colonial history. In most cases, Africans were prohibited from using their native language, and students were humiliated, or even beaten for speaking their native language: “Ngugi points out that language and culture are inseparable, and that therefore the loss of the former results in the loss of the latter” (Margulis http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/Ngugi.html).

The paper seeks to understand the political, social and cultural variables that have thrown Kenya into the geo-political limelight insofar as the so-called ‘War on Terrorism’ is

     “In the world were over seven thousand languages have exisisted, one language had become dominate. This dominant language is English.” “In the majority of countries throughout the world speak English as their second or first language, no longer just America or England.” English has taken many forms, American English, the Queen’s English, Australian, Canadian English, and several others. Even American English has taken several types of English, Jersey English, East Coast English, West Coast English, Southern English, slang English, and Ebonics. All of these languages have major variants between them, but are all of them are still understood aboard. Without English the world couldn’t operate,