Greetings to every member of the @urdu-community. It's week 2 already of the Season 2 of the Steemit engagement challenge and I am so thrilled to be participating in this contest by the Urdu community. I will be discussing on How language connects an individual to his family, globe or specific society. As you can already tell, this is an amazing contest idea since we all know how essential language is in communication at all levels and in building something great. So, please do sit back and enjoy the rest of your read.

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What is meant by language? Define language in your own words.

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In my own words, language is any means of communication between two or more individual. It could be verbal as in spoken words or non-verbal as in body languages, eye contact or sign languages and anything in between. Languages has played a crucial part of our lives since the beginning of time both in we humans and animals (of course animals do also have ways in which they communicate with one another).

Languages are passed down from generations to generations and so will it continue. It is for this reason that the elders/parents in contemporary generation teach their younger ones or children how to speak and write well in their language to avoid miscommunication and also encourage them to learn other languages.

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How language connects an individual to his family, globe or specific society.

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Language is a very powerful tool in communication, it helps to pass information and receive information also, we have a lot of languages in the world today, the world will not be meaningful without language, we have some forms of language which will discuss shortly, language has been used so much in the world especially for improvement in tech, in tech we have some language used in write code to build big project that will be useful to humanity.

Language connects us together in our families, it makes information easily passed among the family and in Nigeria where I came from some families do make use of deep language whereby if there's an external person among them, he/she will not be able understand what they are saying.

Local language is mostly used by families for example if my daddy is speaking with any of his siblings, he uses our native language which is Yoruba so that they can flow well in their conversation.

The most common global language is English language and it's is mostly spoken by country that is been colonized by the British government, we also have some other global language like French etc.
English language is the official language in my country (Nigeria) and it's used in our everyday activity, for transactions and for meetings.

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Which is your mother tongue? and which languages ​​are spoken and understood in your home other than your mother tongue?

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My mother tongue is Yoruba language and it is mostly spoken by people in the south west region of Nigeria, it's spoken by over 80 million. It gives clear understanding to words or information that should be passed across. Most times if I am reading some stuffs in English and it looks so confusing, I will like to interpret it in my mother tongue so that I can have quick understanding.

We speak two languages in my family which are the Yoruba language and the English language, we speak more of Yoruba because everyone in the family understands it but not everyone in the family understands English especially our grandma leaving in with don't understand English that much so we have to speak to her in our mother for us to flow with here in communication.

We also speak English language but not as intense as that of our mother tongue and why do we speak English, we speak English to the small kids in nursery classes that don't understand Yoruba so we speak English to them so that we can effectively communicate together.

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How many languages ​​do you know and how did you learn more than one language?

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I know how to speak two languages fluently; these languages are English and Yoruba language and I learnt English language from school since I was in nursery class so many years back though it was a bit difficult for me to learn then because I was so playful but when I begin to grow up, I begin to see people speaking English language I too picked a lot of interest so that I will not be the only one left behind.

I learnt the second language which is Yoruba language at home by watching Yoruba movies, since it's a common language in my family, I got to know Yoruba well from street friends that could speak it well more than I could do , so as we play together, they speak in our native and I keep learning from them but today now I can boost of speaking the two languages when and where needed.

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In which language did you study in school to university and which language do you prefer in the education system in your country and why?

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In my country, Nigeria, our official language is English and that is what most if not all schools here use in teaching their students. Though, our schools teach our native languages as subjects to supplement what students have learnt from home.

Generally speaking, we use English language as our primary means of communication in any official setting including schools. So, I studied using English language in school.

I honestly do still prefer that the schools in my country continue to teach/communicate using a general language or a more neutral language that is known by all in the country as opposed to native languages that is only known majorly to the students from that tribe/ethnicity. For this reason, I would prefer English language.

Nevertheless, I would still strongly suggest that every native language is still taught as subjects in each school as it would really be of help to the students and help us be more diverse an learn about each other's culture. Afterall, language is inseparable from culture.

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How one language or more than one language plays an important role in the development of society.

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I would use my country as an example, Nigeria is a multi-lingual country, apart from the official language, English, we have three major languages, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba each of them belonging to the Igbo tribe, the Hausa tribe and the Yoruba tribe respectively.

Of course, most communications, the verbal ones have to be done in a language. So, definitely on of the role any language or languages play in the development of any society is communication. It is through communication that other developmental plan and further actions can be taken.

In a multilingual country like Nigeria, most societies are filled with people from more than one tribe, so when everybody at least understands each other's language and can also speak the general language, English language, miscommunication would be avoided and the probability of disagreement occurring among society members is lowered and peace reigns in the society.

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How does culture relate to language?

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Quoting the old saying "culture is language and language is culture".
The relationship between language and culture is a rather complex one. Both of them are interlinked and can never be separated. A particular language usually points out to a specific group of individuals. When one interacts with another language, it simply means that one is also interacting with the culture that speaks the language. One’s culture cannot be understood without accessing its language directly.

When a new language is learnt, it not only involves learning its syntax i.e. alphabets, the word arrangement and the rules of grammar, but also learning about the specific custom of the society and behavior. When a language is being learnt or taught, it is imperative that the culture where the language belongs be referenced, because language is very much a crucial part of culture and this is generally speaking.

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Would you like to prefer writing in your own language at the time of writing posting on Steemit, if yes why and if not why not?

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Actually, as someone who loves speaking and writing in my mother's tongue as a way of promoting my culture to the world, I would say YES as anybody who does not understand it can always translate to the language, they understand thanks to the advancement of technology. This way I get to write and express myself in the language I know and understand very well as well as showcase my culture to the world, so it is a WIN WIN scenario so I'd say YES.

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If you want to promote your language in the world, how will you do it? and if you already done, then how much success have you achieved?

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There are many ways to promote one's language to the global audience, it can be promoted via;

1. Movies/Films

2. Music

3. The internet (through blogs and even vlogs)

4. Books and Magazines etc.

5. Movies/Films: The film industry in my country, Nollywood produces tens of thousands of movies per year. In fact, in the year 2009, Nigeria surpassed Hollywood (America's film industry) as the second country to produce the most movies that year just below India's Bollywood.
   This is great stuff from my country's film industry and the best part is our movies are always in English, Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba i.e. our main languages plus they are sure to be of standard and quality and there is always something to learn. It is for this reason it is reaching a lot of global audiences, thereby promoting our general and native languages.

6. Music: If you are a music lover, you would be aware of how Afro beats has been dominating on a global level for decades now, our ancestors delivered and the contemporary African artists also took off from where they left off, modernised their music and Afro beats is soaring high among other genres of music. It can be confirmed from the fact that African artist are competing with other artists around the globe for international awards like the Oscar's, Grammys, BET etc. Most often than not, we come out on top. So, music will always remain an essential means of promoting languages not only at a local level but at a global level too.

7. Through the internet: This is an easier way to rich out to the rest of the world for anybody. One does not have to be an artist or actor before one uses the internet and reach out to the world unlike the Movies and Musics. So, this is one of the ways I would promote my language. I would promote my language by writing blogs about my culture, these blogs would be written in my native language, Yoruba which can then be translated to other languages, making videos and uploading on social media apps like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter is another way to promote one's language at a very basic level and it's reach global audiences.

8. Books/Magazines: Languages can as well be promoted in Novels, Books, Newspaper, magazines, any globally read written material really.

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CONCLUSION

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Language is a crucial part of our lives and culture, it could be verbal or non-verbal as long as two or more people are communicating, a language is being used.
Language plays a pivotal role in building something great at all levels from our homes (family) to our immediate community to our local government area to the Nation at large and of course even at a global level as nothing substantial cannot be built without proper communication.

Thanks so much for reading, I really appreciate and I hope you learnt a thing or two on the crucial importance of language.

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I would like to invite my friends @kennydavebobo, @ojerindejoel and @olawole111 to also partake in the interesting contest and share with us their view on the importance of language.