It all began a few years ago with lol on yahoo messenger, some translated lol as ‘laugh out loud’ and other as ‘lots of love’.
Today, with the intoxication of Blackberry messenger, the list is endless and they say if you don’t know what these acronyms stand for, then you are sooooo not cool!
Aiit – Alright
ao – how
Brb – be right back
Gud – good
HBD – Happy birthday
Hw – How are you
HML – Happy married life
kk – Okay
LMAO – Laughing my a… off
OMG – Oh my God
DP – Display picture
And the list goes on and on and on…
Ao seems to be the way people with the ‘h-factor’ pronounce HOW, and I am surprised that that’s suddenly cool.
Just in case you are unaware, the h-factor refers to the inability of certain people to correctly pronounce words which begin with ‘h’ because of their local accents. So you hear them say ‘ouse’ for HOUSE, ‘ome’ for HOME, ‘hi’ for I and so forth.
While being cool has a feel good factor especially for those older ones who still want to feel young, what worries me is that the quality of spoken and written English continues to deteriorate among our youth.
I recently heard a most bizarre conversation on the radio. A lady called to complain about having not been admitted into the university and she claimed she didn’t know why? Surprisingly, when the OAP (on-air personality as they called) enquired about her JAMB score, it turned out that she had scored 105 in the previous year and declined to 99 in current year. How then was she expecting to have been admitted into a university?
It is absolutely ridiculous. The entry level cut-off mark back in the day was 200 which meant that universities would admit only students who scored above 200 in JAMB and the stakes were higher with different courses for instance, intending medical students had to score about 260 and above, and my older ones complained that our standards had fallen as that time. I wonder what they would say now.
I feel like this posts is a repetition of the last considering that my last post was about language and spoken English. However, I guess that’s the whole idea behind this blog, I get to unleash whatever bothers me!
It continues to worry me how education standards are falling in Nigeria because in truth, there’s only so much development we can attain as a nation without Education.
Friday, 2 December 2011
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
A Fading Identity
Too many things have gone wrong in Nigeria and the belief that change will come with my generation and not the present crop of leaders really gets me worried. As I look around, interact with my colleagues at work and listen to the radio, I am burdened that my generation may not be able to cause the needed change. I fear that we cannot cause that change to happen because you can only preserve what you cherish. I fear that we do not cherish our country because we are losing our identity. I fear that we do not place enough value on ourselves as Nigerians. The reasons behind my fears are not farfetched - we want to dress like Americans, talk like Americans, and spend the American dollar in Nigeria. We say we are proudly 9ja but do not want to speak with a Nigerian accent that would clearly distinguish us anywhere in the world.
When I talk about speaking with a Nigerian accent, I do not mean with the h-factor i.e. HAIR pronounced as ‘air’; HEAR pronounced as ‘ear’; or the r-factor i.e. UMBRELLA pronounced as ‘umbrerra’, PLEASE pronounced as ‘prease’ or generally poor pronunciation like YES pronounced as ‘yels’, FINE GIRL pronounced as ‘fine ger’; BOYS pronounced as ‘bois’ and the numerous examples you all are aware of. I do believe however, that there is a respectable Nigerian accent that you can speak anywhere in the world and you’d be accepted. Professor Wole Soyinka, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Chimamanda Adichie and a host of well respected Nigerians address audiences globally and speak with that ‘respected Nigerian accent’ and they receive standing ovations.
Last week, as I listened to the news on my way to work a brief excerpt from Professor Wole Soyinka’s address to Lawyers at their annual conference was aired. The Nobel Laureate stood out in his usual manual for his impeccable spoken English, but one thing was certain, he spoke with a clear and respectable Nigerian accent. On the flip side, the news presenter struggled with an accent which was neither here nor there. It was clearly not Nigerian, neither was it British or American. What baffles me most about several radio presenters in Lagos is that most have this fake accent that places them neither here nor there. I have actually wondered if that has become a criterion for getting employed in a radio station.
A new phenomenon with Nigerian employers these days is a preference for hiring Nigerians who speak with a British or American accent whether or not they have content. That same intimidation they face when they come in contact with a white man is what has translated into their recruitment style. Yet we complain that we are not respected and are discriminated against when we travel abroad, when we discriminate against ourselves. I think it is ridiculous claim because as they say, 'charity begins at home'.
Dan Forster, an African-American radio presenter at Inspiration FM in Lagos who has lived in Nigeria for about 10 years now tries to speak Yoruba but doesn’t want to lose his American accent. The French man may not speak English as well as you and I do, but when he speaks English, he does it proudly with his French accent, and so does the Germany. They have a clear identity. So why do we want to lose ours?
I was fortunate to be at the Platform 8.0, an annual motivational and leadership seminar organised by the Covenant Christain Centre earlier this year and my biggest take-out was the definition of modernisation by Anand Giridharadas, columnist for the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times online. Anand says “Modernisations is not when you create your own version of Google and rename it Noogle for instance. That would be mimickery and not modernisation. Modernisation is when the world asks, what would the world look like when they begin to do things like Nigerians did?”
Let’s not lose our identity to mimickery!
When I talk about speaking with a Nigerian accent, I do not mean with the h-factor i.e. HAIR pronounced as ‘air’; HEAR pronounced as ‘ear’; or the r-factor i.e. UMBRELLA pronounced as ‘umbrerra’, PLEASE pronounced as ‘prease’ or generally poor pronunciation like YES pronounced as ‘yels’, FINE GIRL pronounced as ‘fine ger’; BOYS pronounced as ‘bois’ and the numerous examples you all are aware of. I do believe however, that there is a respectable Nigerian accent that you can speak anywhere in the world and you’d be accepted. Professor Wole Soyinka, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Chimamanda Adichie and a host of well respected Nigerians address audiences globally and speak with that ‘respected Nigerian accent’ and they receive standing ovations.
Last week, as I listened to the news on my way to work a brief excerpt from Professor Wole Soyinka’s address to Lawyers at their annual conference was aired. The Nobel Laureate stood out in his usual manual for his impeccable spoken English, but one thing was certain, he spoke with a clear and respectable Nigerian accent. On the flip side, the news presenter struggled with an accent which was neither here nor there. It was clearly not Nigerian, neither was it British or American. What baffles me most about several radio presenters in Lagos is that most have this fake accent that places them neither here nor there. I have actually wondered if that has become a criterion for getting employed in a radio station.
A new phenomenon with Nigerian employers these days is a preference for hiring Nigerians who speak with a British or American accent whether or not they have content. That same intimidation they face when they come in contact with a white man is what has translated into their recruitment style. Yet we complain that we are not respected and are discriminated against when we travel abroad, when we discriminate against ourselves. I think it is ridiculous claim because as they say, 'charity begins at home'.
Dan Forster, an African-American radio presenter at Inspiration FM in Lagos who has lived in Nigeria for about 10 years now tries to speak Yoruba but doesn’t want to lose his American accent. The French man may not speak English as well as you and I do, but when he speaks English, he does it proudly with his French accent, and so does the Germany. They have a clear identity. So why do we want to lose ours?
I was fortunate to be at the Platform 8.0, an annual motivational and leadership seminar organised by the Covenant Christain Centre earlier this year and my biggest take-out was the definition of modernisation by Anand Giridharadas, columnist for the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times online. Anand says “Modernisations is not when you create your own version of Google and rename it Noogle for instance. That would be mimickery and not modernisation. Modernisation is when the world asks, what would the world look like when they begin to do things like Nigerians did?”
Let’s not lose our identity to mimickery!
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