How to Learn Yoruba: A Practical Guide for Beginners
My name is Andrew. I was born and raised in London in a Yoruba household, and I've been lucky enough to work on some amazing projects over the years, including creating the popular British-African sitcom Meet the Adebanjos, which went on to air on Netflix for many years.
Nigerian culture has always been a big part of my life, but there was one thing I was never particularly proud of: I couldn't really speak Yoruba. My parents speak Yoruba and I grew up hearing it around me, so I could understand quite a lot, but never had the confidence to reply back in Yoruba.
I'd tried learning several times over the years, but it never seemed to stick. When I started YapTime, I began taking regular lessons again myself and thinking much more about why I'd struggled before, as well as what could make learning Yoruba easier to sustain.
I'm still learning Yoruba today, so this isn't a guide from someone claiming to have mastered the language. But now I can conversations with my parents in Yoruba I could never believer me having in the past. So I want to share with you 10 things I've learned from my own journey and from helping other YapTime students on theirs.
1. Make learning Yoruba fit your life
I've run a marathon before, and one thing marathon training teaches you is that there's a big difference between something you can do enthusiastically for a few weeks and something you can sustain for months. I've found the same thing with Yoruba.
I'm running a business, have three children and usually have a lot going on. I simply didn't have the time or desire to regularly sit down for hour-long Yoruba lessons, so I needed to find something that worked around my life rather than against it.
My lessons are often at 7:30am. That doesn't mean I'm sitting at a desk with a notebook giving the tutor my undivided attention. I might be making the children's breakfast or preparing packed lunches while I'm speaking Yoruba. And that's fine.
For me, 10 minutes that I can actually fit into my day is far more useful than an hour-long lesson that I keep cancelling or eventually start dreading.
Think about what works for you: the time of day, lesson length and even whether you prefer video or audio. Don't build your life around learning Yoruba; find a way for Yoruba to fit into the life you already have.
2. Learn the Yoruba you're actually going to use
One of the reasons I stopped previous Yoruba lessons was that I was learning things I couldn't immediately use.
I'd learn random vocabulary, numbers or the alphabet because the tutor said that was how Yoruba should be learn't, but then have no reason to say it again during the week. Eventually, I started to dread the lessons because learning felt like work rather than something that was helping me communicate.
Now I'm much more interested in learning Yoruba for conversations I'm actually going to have. i.e How do I talk to my parents about their weekend? How do I tell them what I've been doing? How do I talk about the children, an upcoming family event or something that's happened in the news? How do I share an opinion rather than just exchanging greetings?
This has influenced how we've built the YapTime curriculum too. Many of our students are in the diaspora and want to communicate with parents, grandparents and relatives, so we focus heavily on everyday conversations they are likely to have.
Ask yourself: Who do I want to speak Yoruba with, and what do I actually want to talk to them about?
3. Make speaking Yoruba a habit
In the past, I'd have a Yoruba lesson and then barely speak the language again until the following week. When I eventually stopped lessons altogether, I discovered something even more frustrating: I started forgetting what I'd already learned. That's one of my biggest regrets about stopping.
I've found that speaking for shorter periods several times during the week works much better for me. Yoruba stays fresh in my mind and, importantly, the lessons become part of my routine rather than something I have to motivate myself to do.
It's similar to training for that marathon. One enormous run every few weeks wouldn't have prepared me for it. It was the regular training that gradually built my ability.
Language learning works in much the same way. A little, often, can take you a surprisingly long way.
4. Don't give yourself an unrealistic deadline
I've made this mistake more than once. I'd decide I was going to learn Yoruba and immediately start thinking in terms of months: "Surely I can be speaking properly in three months."
That deadline created unnecessary pressure. I started trying to cram my learning by doing lessons, listening to things, revising vocabulary and trying different resources all at once.
Eventually, it became overwhelming. I've had to accept that there isn't a finish line I need to race towards. I'm learning Yoruba because I want to be able to speak it for the rest of my life, so whether it takes me one year, two years or longer isn't particularly important.
Ironically, taking away the deadline has made it easier to keep going.
You don't need to learn Yoruba quickly. You need to learn it sustainably.
5. Don't try to be perfect
This has probably been one of the biggest changes for me. I used to worry about saying things correctly, particularly around people who already spoke Yoruba fluently. I'd try to show off some of the Yoruba I'd learned to my parents, get stuck halfway through the conversation and suddenly feel as though I wasn't making progress at all.
Now I approach those moments differently.
If I don't know a word, I'll use the English word and keep talking. If my sentence isn't perfect, that's okay. The aim is to communicate rather than pass an exam.
The same applies to accent. I have an English accent when I speak Yoruba, and I've become much less concerned about that. People can move to another country, speak its language every day for decades and still retain an accent. Why should learning Yoruba be any different?
Of course I want my pronunciation and tones to improve, but having an accent shouldn't stop me speaking my own language.
6. Turn the conversations that go wrong into lessons
Something else I've changed is how I react when I struggle outside my lessons.
Previously, if I tried speaking Yoruba to my parents and got stuck, it could knock my confidence. Now I see that moment as useful information.
I take the conversation back to my tutor. "I was trying to explain this to my mum. How would I say it?"
Then we'll practise it until I feel more comfortable.
This makes the lessons much more relevant because I'm not learning hypothetical conversations; I'm working on situations that have actually happened in my life and that are likely to happen again.
So when you get stuck speaking Yoruba, don't treat it as proof that you're not progressing. You've just discovered what you need to practise next.
7. Find somewhere safe to make mistakes
Interestingly, I've often found it easier to learn Yoruba from someone I don't know than from someone close to me. Family and friends mean well, but they already know how you normally speak. They can laugh at your accent, immediately correct every mistake or react with surprise when you pronounce something incorrectly.
Even when it's harmless, it can make you self-conscious.
With a tutor, I don't have that history. I'm there specifically to learn, so I'm expected to make mistakes. Once I've built some confidence, I can then take what I've learned and practise it with my parents or other relatives. If you have someone in your family who is patient and encouraging, that's fantastic. Tell them you're learning and ask them to go easy on you. But if you feel embarrassed speaking Yoruba around people close to you, there's nothing wrong with building your confidence somewhere else first.
8. Tell your tutor what you need
I've stopped treating the tutor as someone who simply decides what I need to learn next.
If I'm struggling with something, I'll ask to practise it again. If we're moving too quickly, I'll ask to slow down. If there's a conversation I want to be able to have with my parents, I'll bring it into the lesson.
Sometimes the most useful lesson for me is learning absolutely nothing new.
It's simply spending 10 minutes using Yoruba I already know until it becomes easier to recall.
We've brought that philosophy into YapTime too. A curriculum should give learning structure, but you shouldn't feel as though you're falling behind because you need more time to master something.
9. Your lesson can be your practice
I used to think learning Yoruba properly meant doing lots of work outside my lessons.
Now I don't put that pressure on myself.
Sometimes my 10-minute lesson is all the Yoruba practice I'm going to do that day. I might be making breakfast at the same time, I haven't revised beforehand and I certainly haven't completed an hour of homework.
But I've turned up and spoken Yoruba.
If I have extra time to listen to Yoruba, practise with family or revise something, that's a bonus. I don't make it a requirement for continuing.
For a busy adult, consistency is more valuable than creating the perfect study routine.
10. Whatever happens, don't stop
This is probably the advice I wish I'd followed myself.
I've stopped learning Yoruba several times in the past, and each time I lost some of what I'd worked hard to learn. Starting again then felt harder because I knew I was relearning things I'd previously known.
So my approach now is simple: if life becomes too busy, reduce rather than stop.
If five short lessons a week aren't manageable, do three. If three aren't manageable, do one. If all you can manage is occasionally speaking Yoruba with a parent, keep doing that.
You can always increase again later.
Creating Meet the Adebanjos didn't suddenly happen overnight, and neither did running a marathon. Both involved sticking with something for long enough to eventually see the result.
I'm beginning to see learning Yoruba in exactly the same way.
I'm not writing this as someone who has mastered Yoruba. I'm writing it as someone who spent years wanting to speak the language, repeatedly started and stopped, and eventually realised that I needed to change how I was learning.
That experience has shaped a lot of what we're building at YapTime. For me, the answer has been short lessons, regular speaking, conversations I can actually use, a safe place to make mistakes and far less pressure to be perfect.
My Yoruba is still a work in progress, and that's okay.
I just don't intend to stop this time.
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