A self-made African polyglot - thanks to radio

In rural areas, listening to educational radio programmes is often the only way to learn foreign languages. The extraordinary story of Hassan Kaou is a case in point. Thanks to the radio, this young polyglot fluently speaks Japanese, Arabic, English and German, in addition to French and the main dialects of northern Cameroon: Haoussa and Fulfulde.

by Anne Mireille Nzouankeu, Yaoundé

In one of the classrooms of the Ngaoundéré high school, in northern Cameroon, fifteen pupils, aged between eleven and seventeen, are assiduously learning Japanese. The class is taught by a volunteer teacher, Hassan Kaou, a history student at the University of Ngaoundéré.

Unlike other teachers, Hassan Kaou did not graduate from a language school. He learned Japanese by himself, through the radio.

It all started in 1999 when this polyglot, who was eleven at the time, was just about to  complete primary school. He lives in Doualayel, a small isolated village with no water or electricity. Furthermore, “I had a small stutter at the time and my friends used to make fun of me. So I used to seclude myself in my room”, Hassan recalls.

Autodidact
At home, Hassan spent his days playing with his father’s old battery-powered radio set.
“One day, while playing with the radio, I came across a program in French, on NHK Radio Japan, teaching the Japanese language. At first, I only listened to the program, thinking it would enable me to read and understand the inscriptions on the some Chinese products street vendors used to sell. At the time, I couldn’t distinguish between the Asian languages”, he says with a smile. “Later I became a regular listener of the program, which would also send out booklets to interested listeners”, Hassan adds.

Japanese
At the age of seventeen, Hassan Kaou was already able to speak and write in Japanese. “One day, I wrote a letter in Japanese to the ambassador of Japan in Cameroon to explain how I was learning his language by listening to the radio in my room”, he says.

“In reality, I was fooling around and did not think that the ambassador would even read my letter. I was greatly surprised when he wrote back”.

The reply of Masaki Kuniada, then Japanese ambassador to Cameroon, read: “Mr Hassan Kaou, such an achievement deserves a personal visit from me”, the student recalls.

On 11 March 2005, the Japanese diplomat arrived in the small village to meet “the young boy who learned Japanese through the radio”. It was a historical event for the village and the media was mobilised. In fact, that is how many Cameroonians heard of the small village of Doualayel. “On that day, I read the welcoming address in Japanese, much to the amazement of the village people”, recalls the young man.

Pro bono
“It was not easy to learn Japanese, which has very different alphabet than Arabic and Latin. I am happy to have succeeded in learning it”, Hassan prides himself.

However, it is not fun being the only one to speak a certain language. “I built on the excitement generated by the ambassador’s visit to start a Japanese club in order to teach the language, pro bono, to the youth of my village”.

“Using the radio as a learning tool is a rather unusual method that requires patience and dedication. There is no teacher to punish you or call your parents when your skip class. One must therefore have self-discipline”, he notes. “I feel the self-discipline has made me grow in maturity faster than other young people my age”, he explains.

Opportunities
For Hassan Kaou, being able to speak many languages has only advantages, including prestige and knowledge of other cultures. “I met with the Japanese ambassador on three occasions. I travelled to Japan in 2009 on invitation from the Mayor of Yokohama. The occasion was the commemoration of 150 years of the opening of the city’s harbour to foreign trade. Amongst the 28 high school students invited to the event, I was the only one who could speak Japanese”, he points out.

According Hassan, the knowledge of various foreign languages is an asset in finding a job. Ibrahim, one of his students, is more pragmatic: “I am learning this language because would like to apply for a Japanese bursary”. Ibrahim listens to the radio every evening after class, in order to improve on his skills and knowledge.