This is one of those straight forward posts i don’t talk funny or make fun of you… us. Now the issue of speaking “good English” is usually not taken seriously by most individuals in Nigeria until they mix with the human society and it’s members (the verb for that is “socialize”)
Besides, most of us still don’t speak good English because we find it difficult and for some of us, we don’t know we’re making a mistake when we speak. I’m not referring to the “writing” aspect of English; i’m talking about the verbal aspect, as it were.
I’ve walked in the heads and lips of a few people and they agree with the first paragraph while a few individuals blame it on Education. I mean, University education. So they believe we…THEY can’t speak plain English because they are not in universities or other tertiary institutions. I’d leave you to say something about that in the comment box.
Now, I think we don’t speak and understand because:
1. We Don’t Care: No, really, and this very reason imbues individuals with other forms of illiteracy. We all have that friend (or friends) that speaks good English but we just don’t care and often times vilify them for using too much “grammar” in their conversations but we don’t pay much attention to being like them or better. I hope you catch my drift. A lot of people i’ve come across are just like that. I wonder how they see this world and how they would present themselves in larger scenarios someday. They just don’t care.
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2. We Don’t Move With The Right People: Most of us are morally cultured to the extent of not looking down on people but how else would you want us to place this? I mean, it’s difficult to polish your own English when you don’t communicate with the right people and pay attention to their diction. Instead, a lot of individuals move with those that are worse than them. They’d tell you it’s because they can relate with them better, imagine.
3. We Don’t Listen To Clean Music And Podcasts; A fairish definition of “Clean” music is the ones with understandable lyrics. You could kill your English by listening to 91% of Nigerian songs. Go out and far, you could even listen to messages, motivational speeches (my favorite) or tutorials in your area of interest. These digital Audios are called Podcasts and you could get a lot of them online for free.
4. We Don’t Carry Dictionaries In Our Phones: No. Not the students who need it for assignments. I’m talking about everyone with an internet enabled device that runs applications. This is one of the best ways to look up words you hear, see or think of on the go, anytime, anywhere. Download a dictionary. if you use a Pc or an Android phone, Get
Wordweb Dictionary. It’s loaded and it’s free
5. We Don’t Read In A Distinct Degree: Yes, like in a distinguishable manner. There is a big difference between reading this post to leave comments and to read and take something tangible from here. The latter is more important. It’s like “seeing the blessing in Everything.” It’s saying: “This is not just some crappy post” and you could cite something from here someday IF you READ it well ” understandably.” Once you do that to books you read, you’d improve grammatically too
I’m sure if we’d try any or all of this it’d get better daily. Another thing i’d recommended is to visit sites like Goodenglish.org.sg or other websites with Vocabulary improvement resources to help us grow. It only takes many days, Not decades.
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Do you think as a Nigerian we should be 90 to 100% good in English? Hell no!
We ain't English, we are Nigerians and we have our language. English colonized us and English is an international language, we should learn it for international communication purpose not for using it on daily bases when we have our own dialect. Nigerian is made up of many tribes and English is needed to communicated to all Nigerians but my grand mum doesn't understand English :/ but Pidgin English, that's why I still prefer Pidgin English to be our official language in Nigeria.
Hey! Don't mind me, go learn English jhor unless you no wan talk to other people outside your tribe.
Nice post Magnus 🙂
Your first paragraph is complicated… Thanks much much buddy!
All my comments are usually complicated.. -_-
Yeah… That's why i love it! So true
Hi Magnus,
I agree with you that we probably do not make enough effort. Any attempt to pronounce words better is interpreted as trying to speak "Fone- Phonetics." It does take closing ones eyes and ears to critics to persist at it.
Great Post!
CAMBA
Your first paragraph is complicated… Thanks much much buddy!
All my comments are usually complicated.. -_-
Yeah… That's why i love it! So true
Hi Magnus,I agree with you that we probably do not make enough effort. Any attempt to pronounce words better is interpreted as trying to speak "Fone- Phonetics." It does take closing ones eyes and ears to critics to persist at it.Great Post!CAMBA
Do you think as a Nigerian we should be 90 to 100% good in English? Hell no! We ain't English, we are Nigerians and we have our language. English colonized us and English is an international language, we should learn it for international communication purpose not for using it on daily bases when we have our own dialect. Nigerian is made up of many tribes and English is needed to communicated to all Nigerians but my grand mum doesn't understand English :/ but Pidgin English, that's why I still prefer Pidgin English to be our official language in Nigeria. Hey! Don't mind me, go learn English jhor unless you no wan talk to other people outside your tribe. Nice post Magnus 🙂