Maame Adofoah Yamoah: Born Twi

Maame Adofoah Yamoah informs us that, out of 54 countries on the African continent, only one, Equatorial Guinea, has established Spanish as the country’s official language. Maame is from Ghana, far to the west of Equatorial Guinea, where the colonial and official language is English and where virtually nobody in the country of 30 million people speaks Spanish. So, how did it happen that she’s a fluent speaker of Spanish—Castilian to be precise—complete with the telltale “theta” pronunciation? In this episode of our podcast, the first in Season 4, Maame explains how this came to be, as well as how she’s able to maintain fluency in Twi (pronounced "chree"), one of what she considers two first languages, the other  being English. We learn about her determination to maintain her fluency in Twi after reaching school age and after leaving Ghana more than once to pursue her studies abroad. These studies include arriving several years ago at the University of New Mexico, USA, to obtain her Master’s degree in Hispanic Linguistics. Ever ambitious, Maame has stayed in New Mexico with her family and is now pursuing her PhD at the same university. Along the way we learn about the nuances of the Twi language and Akan culture, as well as the status of bilingual education in Ghana. We also learn about the difference between official language and lingua franca.