I must be an americana

....Is there anything more annoying than seeing people who are ashamed of who they are!.I have so much respect for the chinese and mexicans ,they speak their language anywhere and anytime.They are proud of who they are speak it like it's the best language on earth. Check this out, I went to the store with a friend of mine a couple of years ago, She acted like she didn't know me and walked away because I was on the phone talking with my father, "Maya Maya please!!! you are embarrasing me with your local accent" those were her words...coming from a chick who grew up in Nnewi/Nssuka IMAGINE THAT!no insult to people who live there. She had more grounding in Nigeria than even myself but if you hear her speak?? It's not as if her accent has automatically become American, infact it sounds more like Chinese to me, no offence. Yet it's my voice that is embarrasing, once again...IMAGINE THAT!!! This one is not even bad oh...a Nigerian lady living abroad came back home to visit and she came to my village...to my grand-mother's house to greet the old woman. The lady said "Mama hi!" With all seriousness oh..no jokes. HI?? To my grand ma who is more than 80 years old...of what importance is it trying to show off to someone who does not appreciate whether or not you live in a palace or pit? And the most perplexing part was she seemed to have forgotten how to speak the Igbo language because she'd answer questions put in Igbo with English and be like "sorry?", "excuse me?", "pardon?" when she "did not" understand. Tell me my good people, the possibility of a fully mature, concrete, woman, born and bred on the soil of my village Umuahia...not even Port-Harcourt oh, talk less of Lagos...metamorphosed into an Oyibo overnight and even went as far as "forgetting" her native tongue after 2 short years. WOW!!! It still baffles me oh.

....Sometimes I wish people can see this thing the way I do and I even wish that I could speak my own language because if I could...hmm...If people think you sound wierd when you talk, does it occur to you that they also sound wierd? Everyone in this world has an accent, every single person from my grand ma in the village to the Queen of England and even the President of America. Don't get me wrong...you can go with the concept of "when you're in Rome you act like the Romans" or speak as the case may be, but when you're at home, you are very free to be yourself. Prooving to people that you have crossed the boarders by speaking so that no one understands you would only make you an article for amusement because I know my people...just like me, "they don't send". If they aren't laughing in your face, they'd do it behind you.

....At this point I'm sure you get the whole message, so excuse me if you can't understand me or my accent embarrases you... I'm just a Nigerian girl with a high self esteem and how my voice sounds doesn't make me who I am...You understand??...:)