Ghana’s Ambassador-Designate to South Korea, Kojo Choi, has underscored his deep cultural assimilation and national identity by recounting a formative academic experience—one that involved mastering a language he once did not speak.
In a televised interview Tuesday evening on Channel One TV’s Face to Face,Mr. Choi shared how, despite arriving in Ghana without knowledge of the local Twi language, he excelled in it during the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), the country’s nationwide junior high school exit exam.
“I couldn’t speak Twi when I first arrived in Ghana,” Mr. Choi said. “I attended SOS Junior High School in Tema, and that’s where I learned it. I scored an aggregate 5 in Ashanti Twi on the BECE—better than some of my Ghanaian friends.”
The diplomat said his schooling experience—rooted in an international curriculum that emphasized English, French, and Swedish—initially limited his exposure to local languages. “I was privileged to pick pidgin English as my third language,” he said with a hint of irony.
Mr. Choi’s linguistic journey, however, extended well beyond the classroom. He recalled spending time in Ghana’s Upper East Region as a child, where he picked up conversational Frafra—a regional dialect spoken predominantly by the Gurune people.
“Because they speak just the Frafra language, I can speak a little,” he noted. Today, he is fluent in Twi and conversational in Frafra.
In a pointed affirmation of national allegiance, Mr. Choi made clear that his identity is firmly rooted in Ghana. “I am a full Ghanaian,” he said. “I don’t hold any other passport apart from the Ghanaian passport. This is my home.”
The ambassador-designate’s remarks come as Ghana continues to balance its diplomatic ambitions with efforts to project a strong, unified cultural identity abroad.
