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Today’s interview is with a woman with great foresight in a wounded community – The founder of Akonilede Yoruba. An alarmingly high amount of Yoruba children in Nigeria can’t speak proper Yoruba, and it’s expectedly even worse in the Yoruba children living in the diaspora. This has been due to several factors, including colonization and its subsequent English dominance, urbanization, the media, educational systems, and upbringing. With Akonilede Yoruba, Mrs. Oluwadamilare is taking control of the narrative by teaching the Yoruba language to students of a wide age range, helping restore our Yoruba cultural values, one student at a time. Let’s dive right in!
Q- Can you tell us your name?
Answer
Oluwadamilare Temitope Igbayiloye
1B-Qualifications: B.A Yoruba, Master’s in Yoruba Language and literature, Post Graduate Diploma in Education, Post Graduate Diploma in Global Business Management.
Q- How did you get the idea for Akonilede Yoruba?
Answer
I engaged in a short conversation with my neighbor’s daughter, and I realized she was struggling to pronounce the Yoruba inscription written on the cloth I was wearing on this memorable day. Then it dawned on me that if a child who lives in a country where the language is widely spoken is struggling to speak the language, definitely children in the diaspora face more challenges to speak the language.
Q- What your company’s mission statement or core values are).
Answer
Our mission is to equip learners with language mastery and cultural insights through innovative educational resources, preserve, protect, and promote the Yoruba language, and foster pride in their heritage.
Q- What products or services do you offer?
Answer:
-Online Yoruba Language classes
-Learning Resources
-Special immersive yearly cultural event-EREKODUN
Q- What is Akonilede Yoruba’s unique selling point?
Answer:
We provide customized and flexible highly interactive online Yoruba language classes for Nigerians in the diaspora to help them stay connected to their root and heritage. Our yearly immersive program gives our learners the opportunity to celebrate and connect with their culture.
Q- What problem does your product/service solve for customers?
Answer:
Inability of Yoruba child, teenagers and adults who lives in the diaspora to have a basic conversation with their family, friends and colleague in their local language (Yoruba) and connect better with their culture and heritage.
Q- Who is your target audience?
Answer:
-Children
-Teenagers
-Young adult in the diaspora
Q- Can you share a success story or case study of what your customers say about your services?
Answer:
Reviews 1
Overall, I’ve been impressed with Akonilede Yoruba’s professionalism. The staff is courteous, and the line of communication is always open and very clear. My son always looks forward to his Yoruba classes and likes working with his teacher. My son’s Yoruba vocabulary is rapidly expanding, and I can understand some of the sentences he says now. He also understands some things that I say to him. I’m incredibly happy that he is learning Yoruba and I am eager to see how well he will understand family and friends when we visit Nigeria in the summer. I highly recommend Akonilede Yoruba. E ku ise o!!
Review 2
I’m an American girl with some (20%) Nigerian ancestry. I came into this class with limited knowledge of the Yorùbá language at the level of a two year old and left with the knowledge of a four or five year old! It’s a slow process, but effective process. I have learned so much about natural sentence structure and rules for pronouns. I’m definitely adding this to my schedule for an extra-curricular class next semester!
Q- Can you please share the special promotions or discounts your business is currently running?
Answer:
Discount of 10-15% discount for parents with more than 2 learners
Discount of 10% for Adults from 18 years old and friends.
Q- How can readers find your business online?
Answer:
You can find us on our website, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Tiktok, and Facebook.
Q- If you want, can you offer my readers an exclusive discount for your product/services?
Answer:
Discount of 10-15% discount for parents with more than 2 learners for our personalized class
Discount of 10% for Adult from 18 years old and friends.
Q- Are there any upcoming events/classes or product launches?
Answer:
-We have a two-day free Yoruba class coming up on the 14th and 15th of September
-Our yearly program comes up in December, tagged Erekodun, where our learners and attendees from different parts of the world connects to celebrate the rich culture of the Yoruba people
Q- What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Answer:
Focus on your journey and the value you are creating, be resilient, embrace structure, be futuristics and invest in your team. No one grows in isolation.
Q- Can you provide some tips for getting the most out of your product or service?
Answer:
As a learner, if you want to gain mastery of the language, you should create time to master the basics. Consistency births mastery.
Q- What do you think about the Yoruba culture?
Answer:
Yoruba culture is a value-rich culture. Every descendant of the tribe should have the opportunity to learn about it, promote it, protect it, and pass it on to the next generation. I am proud to be a Yoruba girl.
Q- Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Answer:
Thank you for building this community to promote the Yoruba language on your platform
We’ve come to the end of our interview with Akonilede Yoruba. Discover Yoruba really appreciates their efforts, and we are using our platform to bring this incredible learning opportunity to our dear readers.
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