![]() |
Image: Rawpixel on Pinterest |
English is my first language. Though my father is Idoma, my mother Ebira and my birth place a chiefly Hausa region, English was and is my first language.
I have studied English as a prerequisite from nursery school until I dropped the book I was just reading.
I used to get turned off by people who didn’t speak well, especially if they were in the eye of the public. I could write a person off if they mispronounced a word. A whole speech could mean absolutely nothing to me if the speaker’s diction and grammar was not up to par. I used to correct people in my head while having a conversation with them. At a point, when a person didn’t speak well, I would flinch; literally!
I knew I had an ‘r’ problem but I felt I was better at speaking correctly than most people. I used to pride myself on speaking well until something happened in 2014.
I was attending a communication training for media personalities; this was when I worked on radio and television. The trainer – whom I respected very much – critiqued my spoken English so much so that I almost cried during the session. She told me how my pronunciations were fair at best and that I needed to go back to the books. The only thing that kept the tears in was the last vestiges of pride that I desperately clung to.
When I got home, and looked beyond the sting of the criticism, I realized that my spoken language started getting bad when I started speaking a whole lot of Pidgin English. To make matters worse, the American English depicted in the kind of movies I loved was not helping me. It took a total stranger to point out the fact that I had no reason to boast in something I wasn’t really good at. Talk about humbling that pride!
To many, it would seem like nothing. But to anyone who knows that a media person has to sound right at all times, you know that particular criticism was well needed. Every time I had been wrong in my pronunciation, someone listening also flinched! That thought alone had my skin crawling; what with being a perfectionist and all.
So, I went back to the drawing board and started learning my language again…even if it meant from the scratch.
This brings me to another problem. Many people say that English is not their mother tongue in excusing how poor their grammar is. I think that argument is lazy. You cannot spend 14 years from nursery to secondary school studying one language and then come back with, ‘it is not my mother tongue’. Admit that you are lazy and no one will beat you.
I think the onus lies on us to be correct in our pronunciations and sentence constructions. We cannot afford to mix our tenses and fuddle our grammar. This is especially so if you are a media personality, teacher, or public speaker because you are in a better position to educate and influence the public. Nobody wants to listen to someone who does all the ‘tiauns’ and the ‘gbagauns’. Everyone wants to listen to someone who is flawless in sentence delivery and who has a great, commanding diction.
Having said that, it is important to note that speaking well doesn’t necessarily mean donning accents that are not yours; which is what many people do these days. Think of Pete Edochie, Joke Silva, Chimamanda Adichie, Amina J. Mohammed and even many of our parents who were or are educated. They speak so well without losing the essence of their indigenous accents.
So…let us go back to the drawing board and refine our speech!
![]() |
Image: Rawpixel on Pinterest |
1 Comment
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
пинап казино: пин ап казино вход – pin up casino
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
http://1xbet.contact/# 1хбет
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
1win вход ван вин or 1вин официальный сайт
http://images.google.ps/url?q=https://1win.directory 1вин официальный сайт
1win официальный сайт 1win and 1win 1вин зеркало
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
http://1xbet.contact/# 1xbet зеркало
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
пин ап казино: pin up – pin up casino
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
vavada зеркало вавада or vavada зеркало
https://images.google.co.uz/url?q=https://vavada.auction vavada casino
вавада вавада рабочее зеркало and vavada зеркало вавада казино
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
1xbet официальный сайт мобильная версия: 1хбет – 1хбет
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
https://1win.directory/# 1win вход
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
1вин зеркало 1вин зеркало or 1win зеркало
https://clients1.google.az/url?q=https://1win.directory ван вин
1вин официальный сайт ван вин and ван вин 1win вход
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
пин ап: pin up казино – пин ап зеркало
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
пин ап вход: pin up – пин ап казино
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
https://1win.directory/# 1вин
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
1win официальный сайт: 1вин зеркало – 1win зеркало
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
pin up: pin up казино – pin up
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
вавада рабочее зеркало: казино вавада – вавада зеркало
http://vavada.auction/# вавада казино
зеркало 1хбет 1xbet зеркало рабочее на сегодня 1хбет
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
pin up казино: пин ап казино – пин ап казино
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
пин ап зеркало пин ап зеркало пин ап казино
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
https://pin-up.diy/# пинап казино
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
slot siteleri: slot bahis siteleri – slot bahis siteleri
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
http://slotsiteleri.bid/# slot kumar siteleri
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
slot oyunlari: sweet bonanza kazanma saatleri – guncel sweet bonanza
http://sweetbonanza.network/# sweet bonanza kazanc
deneme bonusu deneme bonusu veren siteler bahis siteleri
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
sweet bonanza demo turkce sweet bonanza giris or sweet bonanza free spin demo
http://anolink.com/?link=http://sweetbonanza.network/ sweet bonanza nas?l oynan?r
sweet bonanza 100 tl sweet bonanza free spin demo and sweet bonanza guncel slot oyunlari
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
slot kumar siteleri: oyun siteleri slot – deneme bonusu veren siteler
https://denemebonusuverensiteler.win/# deneme bonusu
pragmatic play sweet bonanza sweet bonanza indir sweet bonanza giris
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
slot siteleri 2024: deneme bonusu veren siteler – deneme bonusu veren siteler
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
slot siteleri 2024: en yeni slot siteleri – slot oyun siteleri
http://denemebonusuverensiteler.win/# deneme bonusu
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
bonus veren siteler deneme bonusu veren siteler or deneme bonusu
https://images.google.jo/url?sa=t&url=https://denemebonusuverensiteler.win bonus veren siteler
deneme bonusu veren siteler deneme bonusu and deneme bonusu bahis siteleri
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
http://denemebonusuverensiteler.win/# bahis siteleri
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
deneme bonusu veren slot siteleri: deneme bonusu veren siteler – yasal slot siteleri
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
https://denemebonusuverensiteler.win/# bahis siteleri
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
sweet bonanza bahis sweet bonanza taktik or sweet bonanza taktik
https://canada-place.co.jp/index.php?a=free_page/goto_mobile&referer=https://sweetbonanza.network sweet bonanza oyna
sweet bonanza slot slot oyunlari and sweet bonanza kazanc guncel sweet bonanza
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
slot siteleri bonus veren: en iyi slot siteleri – slot oyun siteleri
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
guncel sweet bonanza: sweet bonanza yorumlar – sweet bonanza oyna
http://sweetbonanza.network/# sweet bonanza kazanma saatleri
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
https://sweetbonanza.network/# sweet bonanza demo turkce
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
deneme bonusu veren siteler: bonus veren siteler – bonus veren siteler
http://denemebonusuverensiteler.win/# bahis siteleri
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
pragmatic play sweet bonanza: sweet bonanza kazanma saatleri – sweet bonanza siteleri
https://slotsiteleri.bid/# bonus veren casino slot siteleri
Awesome blog. I would love to see true life prepared to walk, so please share more informative updates. Great work keeps it up. SY0-501 vce