Greetings to everybody in the house. As this year runs to an end, I try to figure out my weaknesses. Fortunately for me - I did and it is poor communication skills(English). I think one of the prevailing factor behind this is that I'm used to saying local English and slangs to my fellow country men.
However, I made a resolution to have a very good command of this language I'm talking about.

DISCLAIMER: Learning for personal self development

Pidgin is our locally breed language I don't understand why you would want to give it up because of the white man, when the few I have met even wants to learn our form of english. They should go and die.

imiski:
Pidgin is our locally breed language I don't understand why you would want to give it up because of the white man, when the few I have met even wants to learn our form of english. They should go and die.

I'm not giving it up actually but I wish to understand both the standard English as well as our Pidgin English.

Well I've never stepped outside the shores of Nigeria

But I can Authoritatively tell you my Diction is extremely Top notch and my spoken English is superb
You need to hear me speak (I'm actually not bragging)

But the secret to that is due to the fact that I watch alot foreign movies and Also listen to foreign music especially American, so this influenced it Alot.

The trick is not just watching or listening you have to carefully Listen to the wordings and try practicing them on your own
Also make use of E dictionary to learn some new words with its pronunciation too

Read a lot and write a lot. End of story. If your diction is not impeccable you can make up for it with a higher than average vocabulary. The problem is finding enough people who use those big words on the regular.

if you mean your accent then bro just do you trust me no matter how hard you try to sound good your African accent will always f.uck it up

but like if you mean your grammer then just keep company with people who do speak proper english and in no time you'll see the progress

Keep Company with people who have great command of Spoken English
Have a good dictionary app on your phone allowing you to look up unfamiliar words.
Pen down any new word you come across daily in a book dedicated for such
You can also watch more of Hollywood movies, when you do insist on decoding the pattern of language usage, like the Transcription, stress and the write Pronunciation

I appreciate you all. I will make good use of those points you made.

iaamxavier:
Well I've never stepped outside the shores of Nigeria

But I can Authoritatively tell you my Diction is extremely Top notch and my spoken English is superb
You need to hear me speak (I'm actually not bragging)

But the secret to that is due to the fact that I watch alot foreign movies and Also listen to foreign music especially American, so this influenced it Alot.

The trick is not just watching or listening you have to carefully Listen to the wordings and try practicing them on your own
Also make use of E dictionary to learn some new words with its pronunciation too

Bam. OP here is the answer. Foreign music and motion pictures, they help a lot

Watch some American movies nd Try learning Jason statham bristish accents

Yimu

Watch English movies (Foreign) with sub titles.
Watch CNN/BBC/DW/Aljazeera news constantly.
Listen to foreign rap music and read the lyrics of the said songs.
Try communicating in English.
Read the dictionary, hunt for new words and be quick to use each new word you learn to make a sentence.
Thank me later

Watch Tutorials on YouTube

iaamxavier:
Well I've never stepped outside the shores of Nigeria

But I can Authoritatively tell you my Diction is extremely Top notch and my spoken English is superb
You need to hear me speak (I'm actually not bragging)

But the secret to that is due to the fact that I watch alot foreign movies and Also listen to foreign music especially American, so this influenced it Alot.

The trick is not just watching or listening you have to carefully Listen to the wordings and try practicing them on your own
Also make use of E dictionary to learn some new words with its pronunciation too

Thanks a lot my brother. Do you mind recommending some of those movies as well as the American music you listened? Thanking you in advance.

.

.

read a lot. as in alot

Real novels.lotta them.
And you need to make sure all your thoughts are usually expressed in English. Like when you're thinking about stuff,make sure it's always in that language

cutegentility:
Greetings to everybody in the house. As this year runs to an end, I try to figure out my weaknesses. Fortunately for me - I did and it is poor communication skills(English). I think one of the prevailing factor behind this is that I'm used to saying local English and slangs to my fellow country men.
However, I made a resolution to have a very good command of this language I'm talking about.
Gurus in the house, how do I go about this?

Although my English might sound averagely okay to local standard but to international level? I'm no where to be found. Most of my foreign friends also complain about this.

Get Brighter Grammar, part 1 and to 4 and read them. And then, get a lot of novels especially those written by European writers and read them up. Continue reading novels and also attempt professional writings such as articles and essays. Give them out to grammarians to vet. You'll be fine afterwards, I assure you.

cutegentility:
Greetings to everybody in the house. As this year runs to an end, I try to figure out my weaknesses...

Gurus in the house, how do I go about this?

Although my English might sound averagely okay to local standard but to international level? I'm no where to be found. Most of my foreign friends also complain about this.

Thanks for sharing

You could also ask your foreign friends to be specific with their complaints, so you can be focused in your improvement drive.

Is it that they don't understand what you say?

What EXACTLY do they say is wrong with your English?

Thanks again

cutegentility:
Greetings to everybody in the house. As this year runs to an end, I try to figure out my weaknesses. Fortunately for me - I did and it is poor communication skills(English). I think one of the prevailing factor behind this is that I'm used to saying local English and slangs to my fellow country men.
However, I made a resolution to have a very good command of this language I'm talking about.

Gurus in the house, how do I go about this?

Although my English might sound averagely okay to local standard but to international level? I'm no where to be found. Most of my foreign friends also complain about this.

I want to believe your 'problem' isn't your grammar but your pronunciation. If it is indeed your pronunciation, I would suggest you learn the 44 IPA symbols. There are a lot of videos on it on YouTube. Whilst doing that, you should learn the alphabets the symbols represent and how to transcribe words phonetically for accurate pronunciation(s). Watching movies in which standard (not accented ) English is spoken can also help you to improve your pronunciation. Personally, I enjoy watching British movies (not those Irish, Scottish ones though), and watching BBC news. Lastly, get a dictionary app with audio clips that allows you to listen to how words are pronounced both in the American and British English.
Good luck on your quest for better English.

adeiza4u:
Get Brighter Grammar, part 1 and to 4 and read them. And then, get a lot of novels especially those written by European writers and read them up. Continue reading novels and also attempt professional writings such as articles and essays. Give them out to grammarians to vet. You'll be fine afterwards, I assure you.

Thanks for your contribution.

alignacademy:


Thanks for sharing

You could also ask your foreign friends to be specific with their complaints, so you can be focused in your improvement drive.

Is it that they don't understand what you say?

What EXACTLY do they say is wrong with your English?

Thanks again

I think my vocabulary and my spoken English are not enough.

They said bad English most often but fellow countrymen will have decoded it sharply. It is the choice of word(diction) that varies as a result of culture and geographical location. I think one should have basic insight of life in the western world.
Let me site some examples to pass my points effectively.

We are experiencing harmattan during this period therefore we say: "It is a dry season".

But to them it is either Winter,Autumn, Spring or Summer.

Fellow country men will have understand 9PM or AM

But to some they will ask for digital time like 24 hour clock because some don't even understand PM or AM.

I agree with what our fellow nairalanders opined that I should endeavour to watching foreign movies and to also listen to foreign music, reading novels etc .
I think understanding many English synonyms will also help the situation at hand because they barely use some words we often use on a daily basis in this part of the world.

cutegentility:


I think my vocabulary and my spoken English are not enough.

They said bad English most often but fellow countrymen will have decoded it sharply. It is the choice of word(diction) that varies as a result of culture and geographical location. I think one should have basic insight of life in the western world.
Let me site some examples to pass my points effectively.

We are experiencing harmattan during this period therefore we say: "It is a dry season".

But to them it is either Winter,Autumn, Spring or Summer.

Fellow country men will have understand 9PM or AM

But to some they will ask for digital time like 24 hour clock because some don't even understand PM or AM.

I agree with what our fellow nairalanders opined that I should endeavour to watching foreign movies and to also listen to foreign music, reading novels etc .
I think understanding many English synonyms will also help the situation at hand because they barely use some words we often use on a daily basis in this part of the world.

You should work on your linguistic skills to develop yourself not to impress or satisfy your fake friends.
If your friend’s observations/complaints were based on the above instances, I think they have low self esteems and inferiority complexes.

It is good to know the four seasons but they don’t apply in Nigeria and I will use dry season or harmattan anytime, any day. Apart from winter and summer, you’d be surprised that not a lot of people know the difference between autumn and spring and which one of them comes first.

It’s Harmattan or dry season in Nigeria, tell them that or any non Nigerian and let them figure it out themselves or relate that to whatever season that they have. Stop bending to people and don’t allow them to be bullying you.

I don’t think there’s any hard and fast rule on using the pm/am and the 24 hour rule except you are working in security but tell your friends to stop harassing you about that, I’m sure even the ogas at the tops of those security outfits won’t be this pedantic. If they/your fake friends are working as door supervisors somewhere and have adapted to that mode of time telling, tell them not to take out their frustrations on you after a hard day’s job.

Tell them it’s a new year, tell them day don break for Naija, tell them 7 don nack, tell them Harmattan de and the North East trade wind de blow and scatter like no man’s business.

iaamxavier:
Well I've never stepped outside the shores of Nigeria

But I can Authoritatively tell you my Diction is extremely Top notch and my spoken English is superb
You need to hear me speak (I'm actually not bragging)

But the secret to that is due to the fact that I watch alot foreign movies and Also listen to foreign music especially American, so this influenced it Alot.

The trick is not just watching or listening you have to carefully Listen to the wordings and try practicing them on your own
Also make use of E dictionary to learn some new words with its pronunciation too

Stop hyping yourself. Your English writing prowess is flawed. You don't punctuate well, and that is something you have to learn in this newyear ,2020.


I'm messing with you bro, but I'm just pointing out the obvious.lol

KosiGee:


You should work on your linguistic skills to develop yourself not to impress or satisfy your fake friends.
If your friend’s observations/complaints were based on the above instances, I think they have low self esteems and inferiority complexes.

It is good to know the four seasons but they don’t apply in Nigeria and I will use dry season or harmattan anytime, any day. Apart from winter and summer, you’d be surprised that not a lot of people know the difference between autumn and spring and which one of them comes first.

It’s Harmattan or dry season in Nigeria, tell them that or any non Nigerian and let them figure it out themselves or relate that to whatever season that they have. Stop bending to people and don’t allow them to be bullying you.

I don’t think there’s any hard and fast rule on using the pm/am and the 24 hour rule except you are working in security but tell your friends to stop harassing you about that, I’m sure even the oga at the tops of those security outfits won’t be this pedantic. If they/your fake friends are working as door supervisors somewhere and have adapted to that mode of time telling, tell them not to take out their frustrations on you after a hard day’s job.

Tell them it’s a new year, tell them day don break for Naija, tell them 7 don nack, tell them Harmattan de and the North East trade wind de blow and scatter like no man’s business.

That's nice

cutegentility:
Greetings to everybody in the house. As this year runs to an end, I try to figure out my weaknesses. Fortunately for me - I did and it is poor communication skills(English). I think one of the prevailing factor behind this is that I'm used to saying local English and slangs to my fellow country men.
However, I made a resolution to have a very good command of this language I'm talking about.

Gurus in the house, how do I go about this?

Although my English might sound averagely okay to local standard but to international level? I'm no where to be found. Most of my foreign friends also complain about this.

Read at least three books a week. And I'm not talking James Hadley Chase here.

The people telling you to watch foreign movies are not helping you. Though staying away from Nigerian english movies should be encouraged.

Since your problem seems to be only speaking, watch a lot of BBC or Al-Jazeera news. Or in particular get a portable radio and listen to BBC World Radio- this can never go wrong.

cutegentility:


I think my vocabulary and my spoken English are not enough.

They said bad English most often but fellow countrymen will have decoded it sharply. It is the choice of word(diction) that varies as a result of culture and geographical location. I think one should have basic insight of life in the western world.
Let me site some examples to pass my points effectively.

We are experiencing harmattan during this period therefore we say: "It is a dry season".

But to them it is either Winter,Autumn, Spring or Summer.

Fellow country men will have understand 9PM or AM

But to some they will ask for digital time like 24 hour clock because some don't even understand PM or AM.

I agree with what our fellow nairalanders opined that I should endeavour to watching foreign movies and to also listen to foreign music, reading novels etc .
I think understanding many English synonyms will also help the situation at hand because they barely use some words we often use on a daily basis in this part of the world.

All the examples you mentioned above have nothing to do with English skills but your ability to adapt to a different culture.

You need to be more confident in your Africaness, after reading your post above I'd advise you read more books and articles from African authors to build up your self esteem. I recommend literature from our golden age in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

AndroBlaze:


All the examples you mentioned above have nothing to do with English skills but your ability to adapt to a different culture.

You need to be more confident in your Africaness, after reading your post above I'd advise you read more books and articles from African authors to build up your self esteem. I recommend literature from our golden age in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Do you mind listing some of it?
Thanks

Richnerd69:



Stop hyping yourself. Your English writing prowess is flawed. You don't punctuate well, and that is something you have to learn in this newyear ,2020.


I'm messing with you bro, but I'm just pointing out the obvious.lol

I only talked about my spoken English not the written
But you need to hear me speak though

cutegentility:

Do you mind listing some of it?
Thanks

It's been ages since I read those books my self, books like Mine Boy, Zambia shall be free, No Longer at Ease and a host of others under the African Writer Series.

My special mention would however be African Child by Camara Laye, a truly evocative and spectacular read- to think it was even translated from French, a great little book.

iaamxavier:

I only talked about my spoken English not the written But you need to hear me speak though

Packaging