How demeaning the feeling of being left out is.
All my life I grew up in the southern part of Nigeria, Rivers State Port-Harcourt city to be precise.
The people of Rivers State, Port-Harcourt hardly converse using their dialect they mainly use English, even the elderly people. That way it's a lot easier to aid communication amongst the inhabitants of the state, in Rivers State all people of all tribes in the country can be found there as it's one of the major hustling cities in the country same goes for Lagos State.
Aspiring for admission, I placed my aspiration for an admission in Akwa-Ibom state, I didn't know much about the state though I was from there.
I spent all my life in Rivers State and I just came to Akwa-Ibom state due to schooling, I could understand my native dialect 'ibibio' but I couldn't speak, so this marked the beginning of my discomfort in Akwa-Ibom state.
I got an admission in the university of Uyo, Akwa-Ibom state, to study biochemistry. I was so excited and at the same time tensed because it was a new environment I knew nothing about.
Akwa-Ibom state is a place where it's inhabitants interact more in their native dialect, since majority of the individuals there are from the state and they can understand themselves, so there is this high expectation that each and every person seen in Akwa-Ibom state has the ability to converse using the popular 'ibibio' dialect.
Resuming studies in the first semester of the academic session was likened to hell on Earth, I could barely find my way and virtually every person I saw on school campus wanted to converse using the 'ibibio' dialect. I could very much understand what they were saying but I couldn't respond due to my inability to communicate using the dialect.
It got worse when I finally knew my way around the university campus, initially my aim of choosing the university of Uyo for schooling was to connect with my origin and learn about my roots, but I regretted that decision. I made friends in my department but we never really got along due to my inability to speak my native dialect, so I was always left out in heated conversations. This made me feel like 'a fish out of water' I couldn't be myself and I couldn't socialize which is so unlike me so I was always by myself.
Most times I stayed at home to avoid drama, I often got mocked by my friends and most official workers, like the staffs at the bursary unit, the financial office and the microfinance bank due to my short comings in the 'ibibio' dialect.
I disliked myself for it , I wished I could speak fluently, but it didn't work that way. Most times I tried speaking the 'ibibio' dialect in the midst of my friends and I made mistakes of which my friends always mockingly mimicked, it made me feel so bad whenever they did that but I'd just laugh to cover up my pain, so I knew more than to talk during their conversations I simply just kept quiet so as to not embarrass myself any further.
It hurt me so bad I couldn't converse, but there was nothing I could do, I just hoped I met better persons who wouldn't judge me and could fluently converse without the use of a native dialect or mother tongue interference.
Read next
From @ubdan313