Surprising My Nigerian Family by Secretly Learning Their Language 

My language learning app Fluyo, the one shown in video for Flashcards (LIVE on Kickstarter now): fluyoapp.com Learning a new language is always a special experience. But this was something else. Finally I felt like I embraced my heritage, my roots and was able to connect to my family by speaking their language

My native language is Igbo and I have to say you absolutely shocked my socks off.

Your father looks like the type who doesn't express emotions very loudly but is always genuine about it. Very wholesome video!

I learned Swedish to speak with my nan as she grew older, and one day she said, "I am glad you picked up Swedish, because I had forgotten how to speak it," lol. I thought she missed her language, because everyone speaks German, Spanish or English at home. However, she didn't even know her own bloody language. So we both spoke broken Swedish until she passed. It made her smile though, and I am sure dad felt the same.

Yooo, this was so heartwarming!! Got me teary-eyed.. My dad died before I learned more than a few words or phrases in Russian. But I made the decision anyways to finally learn Russian after all these years. I found and used your FME method, and I ended up getting the opportunity to have a conversation with my grandma in Russian before she died as well. It was an incredible experience and memory I will always cherish. So proud of you Ikenna, and everything you set out to do. Wishing the best for you man! Keep on going and can't wait for Fluyo!!

You’ve made us all 1st generations proud 🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬❤ My dad is Igbo but speaks Yoruba as well and my mum is from Rivers so she speaks Igbo and her towns language but they never taught it to me or my brothers and it’s always been one of the saddest things😢, I feel like even tho I’m so proud to be Nigerian, because I can’t speak Igbo and I was born in England, people question how Nigerian I really am!!!😢 My fiancé is Polish and I’ve taught myself the language over the years so that our whole household and children can ALL be bilingual from the start !!!🥰 Lots of love my naija bro !! ❤

How amazing! I almost cried watching this. It would be so cool to see you have another conversation in Igbo with your family 6 months later, a year later, etc. Congrats!

This is so wholesome. You're a good dude, wish you all the best.

SO HEARTWARMING!!!😍 My heart is sweet too for you and your family, the look on their faces, the happiness! I hope that you've become totally fluent in Igbo. Thanks for the content

Love this, glad you’re feeling connected to your culture and family! My mom and her family immigrated from Cuba and learning Spanish later in life allowed me to connect and listen to stories from my grandmother about her life in cuba I never would have known if I didn’t start that journey. What a beautiful experience it’s been I’m happy you’ve made the same commitment!! Much love.

I don't know how I stumbled upon this video but I'm so pumped to learn my mother tongue too. My parents are Nigerians (Yoruba & Edo) but never taught us the language. I'm going to start taking classes too. I need to learn both languages. Well done to you and thanks for sharing your experience.

You're an inspiration dude. The joy your family displayed when you spoke to them in their native language brought me to tears. Beautiful.

I almost cried 🥹🥹 So beautiful to watch

I love this story! Congratulations. There's nothing like connecting with your roots.

From a Nigerian igbo gurllllll....lotssss off loveeeee

the rest of your family in facetime was so happy!!!

I feel like this is a sign because I too want to learn my parents’ mother tongue

All your family were so proud of you!

You’re a real wholesome dude. I’m proud of you and I don’t even know you! Amazing work man 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Seeing this video makes me want to learn my mother's language. Its not as tricky as yours but i will definitely be a challenge for me 😄. I will try it 💪

this is so real, im full indian, but i lived in dubai. i used to speak hindi as a baby, but when i went to nursery i just wanted to speak in english. and boom, no hindi knowledge. but in grade 1, we had 3rd languages, i chose hindi. and i learned only the basics. i moved to india in grade 4 and i struggled so badly, bc the hindi in dubai and hindi in uae is so different. but im slowly improving in hindi ( and in bengali, im bengali. )

You are amazing! Congrats for shining light by being an example.

Beautiful, this video is beautiful.

Keep up the good work and continue learning more until you fluent 👏👍

Man this made me tear up a bit. I'm Ibibio and I would like to speak with my relatives in Nigeria as well.

That’s beautiful, great job 👏🏾

Congrats!! They must be so proud

Dad was so proud!!!

I'm pregnant now. My Husband is Igbo and we agree that he will only speak Igbo to our child. So I pray that work.

We proud of you bro

This was heart warming ❤❤

I'm happy for you and your family.

This is so sweet 🥰

Good for you man

I’m crying… I’m puertorriqueño in my country there’s an underlying disdain towards defending our language, our dialect and our culture, as if by defending it you’re holding back progress or only people that defend it, do it in the name of some political agenda… I’m so used to hearing this narrative and being bombarded with disdain for my appreciation of my culture, that seeing your interest in your own culture made me start crying. It’s refreshing seeing your interest and drive to master your language. Thank you

absolutely amazing

congrats from Italy

This is inspiring

You dad’s face when you told him you loved him in his native language was just beautiful. What a touching moment!

That smile on your Dads face after hearing you speak Igbo.

As an Igbo, I don't think the video even shows just how much PRIDE and JOY he's brought to all those family members. Honestly one of the best things he could do for them. Class act

The fact your dad is walking up and down while you are talking on FaceTime to them just shows how happy he really inside this is a great video mate SUBSCRIBED

that 30 minutes of your dad teaching you his dialect must have been incredible. proud of you dude!

When you told your father you loved him in his language, I know that was extremely touching for him and it made me cry. I'm sure it's something that you always dreamed of.

As a father of a mixed boy, when you said your dad that you love him in his language, I straightaway burst into tears 🥲. You are a great kid with a golden heart ❤️. I hope one day my son can do the same ❤

I’m a white English guy and I’ve been learning small parts of Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa in order to make the vast amounts of Nigerians at my work feel more welcome

4:05 it’s cute how you inadvertently pickup a Nigerian accent when you’re speaking to her there lol

This brought tears to my eyes! That is such a class act bro! Congratulations! You inspired me to learn Libras which is Brazilian sign language. I have an aunt that can't speak or hear and everyone has a hard time speaking to her. Makes me see how left out she must feel not having anyone that can talk to her fluently in sign language

This video hits home as a first generation Nigerian American, who really wants learn to how to speak Igbo. I've always been able to understand it but crossing the speaking barrier has been tough. Thank you for this video. It's inspiring.

2nd gen Latina here. Learning Spanish made me feel a whole helluva lot closer to my family, but of course it's a little scary speaking to them with my limited vocabulary. That's awesome that you were able to connect with your family this way, and surpass that fear ❤

I'm Portuguese and nobody in my family can speak it. I wanna change it, but if I'm honest I don't have the attention span. I'm disabled as well, mentally and physically, which really makes it harder to believe I can do it, but you inspire me man. I don't know you, but I'm proud of you and thank you for posting this

Ikenna, I am a 24 year old Hmong American girl. I know EXACTLY what you mean by you were more interested in doing fun things rather than learning your mother language. I don’t speak Hmong, I never learned. I’ve never been able to have a conversation with my grandparents other than just saying very very basic things. But now that I’m an adult, I realize how important it is to learn my mother language. Thanks so much for sharing your journey!

As a Punjabi, I have so much respect for Nigerian families. You’re intelligence, work ethic and your family values are second to none. Honestly one of my most favorite people. Great video!

it’s mad impressive how much he managed to learn in 1 month

This is so beautiful!! My family is also Nigerian, specifically Yoruba, and I was never taught the language. I knew some words and would sometimes understand what my parents would say, but I still never fully understood the language. It’s my life long goal that l want to be able to speak Yoruba and be able to teach my future kids the language as well, so this video was really a motivational booster!!

I’m Nigerian/Jamaican and can’t speak igbo, but am determined to learn. Your video was inspiring, thanks for sharing 💙 and congratulations on your progress

This hits really hard for me. I'm not an Igbo speaker, but I know the feeling of shame and guilt that comes with not being able to speak your native language. For me, that was Mandarin. I've been learning it on and off for years now, and while I'm no fluent speaker, I'm able to read, write, and speak more Mandarin than my childhood self could've ever imagined. This definitely made me tear up, and it also gives me a lot of motivation to keep studying. To all those first-gen folks who feel ashamed or feel that they lack the motivation to start, I give this piece of advice: no attempt at learning the language will ever be "useless". The fact that you even want to learn the language is something to be proud of. I can't even tell you all how many times I went off and on with studying it. 5? 10? 15 attempts? Sometimes, my mental health got in the way. Sometimes, I felt so ashamed at my lack of knowledge that I would temporarily quit. But every attempt I did, I always picked up at least one new word, and that’s progress too. I never really leave sappy or long comments, but I hope this reaches someone who needs it. 😊 Update: dang, I didn't realize so many people felt the same as I did. Thanks for all the likes, y'all. I plan to take Mandarin as a college course, and I'm hoping I can test out of level 1 so I can take the level 2 course!!

as a mixed child who only speaks english this makes me so incredible happy and hopeful, i have always wanted to learn my father's language and you have reminded me that it is possible even with health issues that make it much more difficult. please keep inspiring people by being you

I so desperately want to connect with my heritage. I started learning Tagalog, and picked Japanese back up. I want to speak to both families 😭

Man, this is so freaking cool. I'm Filipino on my dad's side, and I think it's about time I learned some tagolog

This is very impressive! As a Nigerian living in Nigeria though a Yoruba by tribe, I am really impressed with your determination to learn Igbo. I also wish I can speak the language inspite of serving in Abia state for a full one year.Thumbs up !

Thank you so much for this video. I'm a mixed Italian-Nigerian girl, and I'm the same situation. My Nigerian mother native language is Edo, aside from English. This video has just motivated me to try to learn Edo ❤

I'm going through a relatively similar journey right now. British colonialism destroyed our language amongst other things and there are only small pockets of Irish speaking communities left around the country. I always felt a profound sense of shame attached to the language so much so that I never cared to learn it. That changed a few months back when I heard a couple of young women speaking in Irish and the shame I felt for not understanding what they were saying completely outweighed the shame attached to the language from our colonial past. So here I am at 32, just learning the basics of MY language. Tá súil agam go bhfuil tú barr na sláinte.

Well done. My mom is Igbo and that’s the only Nigerian language I can speak fluently 👏🏾👏🏾 well done

As an igbo girl and also your sister... I am super proud of you for taking this bold step to uniting with your root. Igbo amaka!! Jisie ike!!

I couldn't stop smiling. As an Igbo girl who is also learning Igbo this was so encouraging

As an Igbo woman who didn’t have her parents teach us the Native language and wants to desperately learn, this gave me so much hope. Thank you ❤️

I learned Korean from the moment I was able to speak. My mom spoke to me in Korean a lot even though she spoke English, and she sprinkled some complex words for me to figure out with context. Then, when I was 6, she took me to Korea to learn how to read and write in Korean. It took me about 2 years to do so, and i am still using what I learned back then to write back to my relatives. Most of my friends here in the US can't speak fluently and especially can't read and write in korean. Although they can kinda make the most basic sentences to get by, this is worse than a 3-5 year old in Korea. Their parents thought that learning Korean would make them dumb and it would affect their grades. This is ironic because we learn Spanish, French, German, Mandarin, etc. when we enter middle/high school. I seriously can't wrap my head around the logic behind that... Most of the parents aren't very good at English and needed help with government letters and going to the store. Their kids couldn't translate accurately and would miss out on important details. So, they would either take the letters to their lawyer or to someone like me which honestly is a big waste of time because they had to make time to do so and most of them were super busy. It was good practice for me, but it always frustrated me to think that their kids, my friends who are also Korean, could not help their parents. This is before kpop/kdrama was huge, so they really needed to put in the work. I found it especially difficult to hold a conversation with the parents in Korean not because we didn't speak Korean, but because every time I speak to them in korean, they would respond back in Korean but literally 5 minutes in, they are speaking to me in English. More accurately, konglish or really bad English. It's as if they just see their kid when they see me... I'm 28 this year and u still have to go through this. It's really bad because the very first thing they assume is I don't know Korean even if I literally introduced myself to them in Korean and my next few sentences were complex sentences. Does anyone else go through this issue (in whatever language you speak)?

this is your most special video yet tbh. as a nigerian girl, it is so beautiful to see you connect with your roots and culture.

Man! I have to say this really made me tear up a bit. Watching you speak your native tongue to your father and family back at home🇳🇬, makes me want to go back. Thank you for this 🙏🏿 and please continue to share the progress!

this is inspiring my to learn my dad’s native language (greek). this really hit home for me. i’ve been making excuses all of my life to not learn it, but i’ve always wanted to learn so i could speak with my grandma (and dad’s family in general). she past away in November last year unfortunately. so now i don’t really get to hear my dad speak greek anymore, but whenever i do, it triggers an emotional response in me. my greek identity is so important to me - learning the language and being able to speak with my dad would mean so much to me. him as well

i don’t usually comment on videos but this made me so emotional. i met my partners family last month in Japan. i had wasted so much time trying to learn quickly rather than effectively which made me realize that i didn’t have the right skills to communicate with them. i hope some day i’ll feel this same accomplishment in this video. so inspiring 😢❤

I love how the smallest phrases spoken by Ikenna gets his grandma geeked! 😂 I began teaching my niece English before I left México 2 years ago and now that she speaks full sentences I get riled over the smallest things like her favorite flavor of shaved ice.

I randomly clicked on this video for serotonin but i was surprised to see some POTS representation too! You should be extremely proud of yourself for not only learning your families language but for also staying dedicated because as someone with POTS, I know it can be hard to work through the brain fog and fatigue. Well done!

I started learning Hungarian 🇭🇺, my mum's native language summer 2021 and it really changed my life. I'm also a polyglot but my mum never got the chance to teach me her native language. Being able to understand my family members is such a blessing. My speech and grammar still sucks but I'm going to work on that 😉

My cheeks hurt from smiling so much throughout the video…keeping your language close means keeping family close, and that’s one of the most precious things to hold on to in these times and especially in your situation where you’re struggling from even doing normal activities. Love.

I totally understand the feeling of disconnect from your culture as a first/second generation immigrant. My Chinese isn’t that good but I look forward to each time I get to go back to my home country so that I can improve!

The last thing I told my dad before he passed away was "i love you" in Igbo... I want to definitely get better, omg when you said it to your dad I cried 🥺

This is so incredibly sweet. My family is from Southern Nigeria (Ijaw). I wouldn't even know where to start learning to speak the language. I have to find a way

It's your dad's pacing up and down during the call for me 🤩 He is so happy and proud of you.

This is special because this id ikeena origin of language I learnt French , russian, Romanian and a little Arabic But I originally speak creole (Mauritius) but now I feel like I can learn this language I didn't learn it because it wasn't spoken much and I feel embarrassed for family to laugh at me but ikeena is a huge inspiration as well :) I CAN DO THIS ❤❤

and i agree. as an american immigrant, when my nigerian aunties and uncles hear me speak even a little bit of igbo, they get super excited. such a great feeling. also ur accent sounds great!

I grew up in Philippines. I moved to the US when I was very young and I have that weird phenomenon where I can fluently understand my native tongue but I can't speak it. It's like English took over my tongue and I can't speak it back. It's like my mother tongue got buried under my English tongue. It's so heartwarming to see you learn for your dad and family. It's truly another connection to be able to speak and be understood.

This brought me to tears! This was SO beautiful. Your dad's and family's reactions were so amazing to see. They (and you) are going to remember this forever. ❤️

theres something so magical about finally being able to speak the same language as your family. after so long of having to communicate in a second language or having a relative interpret, to be able to speak your heart and be fully understood is beautiful.

Usually the mother passes down culture more than the father. So when you mentioned being mixed and not knowing Igbo I could easily assume that your father was the one that spoke it. It's actually really interesting!

This is inspiring and I'm excited to try the new app! Both of my parents were born in Korea but I was born in the US. Korean was my first language but I stopped learning when I started school, because my parents were too busy with work. I also went through a lot of violent trauma within my culture, so trying to re-connect with it has been tough. I have C-PTSD from many violent episodes where Korean was spoken to me while I was being beaten and threatened for over 10 years, so hearing certain words/tones/phrases gives me anxiety and can push me into a depressive spiral. However, I did do a few years of therapy and I'm more stable now, so I've slowly been learning every year. I tried a lot of different tools, but my manual labor jobs leave me very little energy to dedicate to learning Korean, but I have been able to learn some Spanish, Russian and Mongolian. That helped me gain more confidence in my language learning skills.

I remember how hard it is to do anything at all when you’re sick and seeing you accomplish things like this despite your circumstances is a testament to your character

This is amazing! Both my parents speak Igbo and they spoke to us in Igbo but I never learned to speak back. I’ve been taking lessons over the past 6-7 months and I completely agree with the feeling of unlocking a part of your self. It’s brought me closer to my family for sure. You picked it up quickly! Hope you keep it up 🙌🏾🇳🇬

As someone who was born in Nigeria and doesn’t speak any Igbo, I can relate a lot to feeling embarrassed about not knowing the language. But, this has inspired me. Thanks for sharing this!

I'm not even Nigerian or African but this made me smile. To see the smile on your dad's face was heartwarming.

It's the pride shining through all of their faces and smiles. I'm fighting back tears, I'm supposed to be working 😂. What a wonderful thing to do for yourself and your family.

Coming from an African background I can relate to these chaotic calls full of laughter it’s amazing and I’m grateful to have my family 🤍 Beautiful video. I might learn Swahili soon 😅

I relate to this so much. I’ve 21 years speaking only a few words of Darija (the Moroccan dialect of Arabic) and I am studying to be able to speak with my extended family. This video was unbelievably inspiring and I’m even more motivated to pursue this goal. Thanks Ikenna for everything you do! 💪🙏

This inspired me. I was born and raised in New York, my grandparents are from Puerto Rico. I never learned Spanish but this video makes me want to learn my families language. Well done!

Very impressive! 👏🏾 I'm extremely proud of you 👍🏾 For the Igbos, there is no such thing as a half Igbo. Where just one parent is Igbo, the child is Igbo. So in actual fact, it's not just your father's language. It is your language. And language is a big part of ones identity. You fully claim that identity in your ability to speak it.

I am currently working on learning Japanese more seriously (after learning ASL and being fluent in English) but damn if this didn't make me want to learn some Yiddish while my grandma is still around

My eyes are watering watching this. It's such a beautiful thing seeing you put effort into learning your culture. The smiles you put on everyone's faces were worth every moment, and every bit of effort and time you put in. I hope you become fluent. Proud of you Ikenna.

I'm so inspired by your story! I'm Iowan married to a Nigerian of Igbo roots, and I'm also trying to learn Igbo. I know how rewarding it is to be able to connect with your in-laws and other family members in their native language, and I'm excited to be on that journey myself. I'm also a Spanish speaker and former teacher, and I know how much learning a new language can open up your world. It's amazing to be able to communicate with people from different cultures and backgrounds, and it's a skill that I'm so grateful to have. Thank you for sharing your experience! It's encouraging to know that others are on the same journey, and I'm looking forward to continuing to learn and grow.

I'm Yoruba and I can't stop smiling!!!!!! Nothing like La familia.......