I am sorry, I have to do this , not to embarrass anyone BUT, my father was a TEACHER so I can't help it!
So, if you are guilty of the following, you're not a Sleek Nigerian, you'll need to make the following corrections for your 2016 New Year Resolution. to qualify.
(...please feel free to add possible common mistakes by the so-called educated ones)

An educated, professional and sleek Nigerian:

1.
Never writes 'Hello ...' in E-mails. HELLO is for telephone communications ONLY - yes, believe it.

2.
Never says - 'Am Coming' - rather "I'm coming" or "I am coming".

3.
Never uses the phrase 'Couple of...' when he does not mean TWO. Couple means a pair, not more - use 'few' when more than two.

4.
Knows the difference between "their" and "there" - no explanation required, PLEASE - did you pass your JAMB at all?

5.
Never uses the useless phrase - 'going forward' [/b]in a speech or meeting - you only go forward in a car...or OKADA, use [b]'from now on'.

6.
Never says - ' I am going to come....' - it doesn't make sense - self explanatory.

7.
Never says - 'of course yes...' - it is what we call TAUTOLOGY (check your dictionary).

8.
Never says - 'come to my house' , when they live in a flat or apartment. It is vernacular English.

9.
Never describes professional workers in an office as 'working class'. Working class people are people that do manual labour. The definition of class actually depends on the country you are located. Nigeria uses the English definition, which is based on what your PARENTS do (or did) for a living.

10.
Never says - 'give me a call', rather give me a RING (noun), a or 'call me - verb.

...there are many more - but these come to mind and are very very common so please don't be upset if you are found to be using the above listed contraventions - just correct them.

Have a grammatical error-free 2016.


M