FSI Yoruba Intermediate Course

What is the FSI Yoruba Intermediate course?

FSI Yoruba Intermediate is a course designed for those who already have a basic grasp of the language and who are looking to take it further.

It consists of a series of what are described as “overlapping monologs”, recordings of two or three related texts with slight changes between each one. For example, a sentence from the one text could be “the ocean is full of salt” and then in the next version, it might be “the ocean contains salt”. This way, you meet the language in slightly different sentences to help you fully understand the usage.

These monologs are included in text form and are accompanied by audio recordings, allowing you to build your vocabulary, improve your listening and work on your pronunciation.

Each text is also followed by a series of questions in Yoruba that help guide your learning and check your comprehension.

How was FSI Yoruba Intermediate originally used?

This FSI Yoruba Intermediate course was created specifically for Peace Corps volunteers who already had a basic grasp of Yoruba and who were preparing to travel to areas where they would need to use the language in their daily interactions with the locals.

They would have spent time working through these materials both with a tutor and alone to help improve their level in Yoruba before traveling to Nigeria.

However, the course was also designed for those who were unable to attend classes, so those who already had a foundation in Yoruba could use these course materials for self-study before the start of their trip.

How can you use FSI Yoruba Intermediate?

If you have already started learning the language, this free Yoruba Intermediate course is well suited to autonomous study. You can simply work through the texts as they are, listening to them, repeating them, memorizing them, transcribing them or using them in any other way you feel will benefit your Yoruba.

On completing the course, you will have significantly enlarged your Yoruba vocabulary and will also have picked up plenty of useful cultural information about Nigeria at the same time.

Taking it further

If you are already working on your Yoruba, there is a good chance you will have found some native speakers to practice with. If so, just keep doing it – this extra

linguistic input will only help you continue improving. If not, look for native speakers to talk to, and above all, try to make using Yoruba a part of your daily life – because when you do this, you will see how much progress in Yoruba you are making.