lojik:

@poster
What was the required/emphasized area of competence of the graduates you were recruiting? If you were recruiting engineers or technical experts and you had disqualified 90% because of their poor use of English Language, then you need re-orientation as an employer.

U are talking unadulterated balderdash. . . . . .

So Engineers are not supposed to have a good command of English Language?
What do u think Engineers are? Now i am beginning to think this poster is right about the half-baked graduates populating Nigeria.

look folks,we all say different things to suit our deficiencies and short comings.it will be difficult to use local languages to teach the basic things in nigeria.most of these countries mentioned above doesnt have multiple local languages like nigeria and most of them still send their wards off to the us and london to study.a place like brasil speaks only portuguese and chaina have very few as well.so its easy for them.in nigeria,our political leaders choose english for us,so by God,lets endeavour to learn it and learn it well for anything that is worth doing is worth doing well.my widowed mother couldnt say her name in english,bt i picked an interest in reading very early in life and today it has helped a lot.another reason for our poor english culture is our epileptic school system.teachers are now more of glorified traders selling handouts and other stuffs to students.the government on her part does not encourage no one.some parents are too busy making money or looting them with the belief that they can buy their children both certificates and brains.no one says that u cant be a master at as many languages as you can.i dont teach my twin kids neither igbo nor english.(thier mother is not a nigerian and a non english speaker).i am allowing them to get a good understanding of their 1st language and soon as they turn 6,i will bring them home to study in 9ija where they will be able to learn both my language and the imported one which is the queens.if they fail to master them,na dem wahala dat one go bi.

habumaks:

Did you two notice spelling/grammatical errors in your posts? 

ROTFLMFAO, this is funny

Not all are appalling, there are some Nigerians with almost perfect lingo.

@poster. , You don't make absolute statements. It's not just bad English, it's a faulty way of reasoning. How would you feel if someone says,

Nigerians a corrupt, or men are liars. It's total nonsence, Or is Wole Soyinka not a Nigerian graduate? Read your post once again, I don't think u re

an american graduate either[/size][size=8pt]

@poster, Will you take that back! I guess for the fact that two or three Nigerians sent you unprofessional resumes does mean the whole Nigerians would be in the same way. Sometimes, you know how to proofread or pinpoint errors from other people's resumes or writings doesn't mean you are not susceptible to writing errors when you writing by yourself.

If you think your company picks students by visual of neat resumes; that means you believe in quantity rather than quality. Remember, you have a lot of organizations that openly help students to write resumes on commission bases. Tell me, if you see a student who has done a lot of research and worked in both Big-Four and Fortune-500 companies and had his or her resume not well put together, but got all the information and experience on it. Would you pick well written resume without experience over that?

Then, remember we are not so much familiar with resume thing like that, except you are being exposed to business world. And most students in Nigeria can afford Microsoft Words software; I think there are lots of reasons not to criticize NAIJA STUDENTS.

I know more than 150 Nigerians in USA, all across southern, US, who could not even make third class in Nigeria; but once they got to states it's always 4.0/4.0 GPA. What causes that if you ask? The results are cumulative in America, meaning what you got in Mid-term is fixed and would never come out in final exam and most time finals might just be %10 of your total grades. In Nigeria, it's on opposite, the final exam is 70 or 75 of your semester grades. Surprisingly, most Nigerians never got less than 3.5/4.0 G.P.A in US Colleges and got above 1100/1600 in GRE or 500/800 in GMAT. Then, you see Ife or Unilag students barely had  2-1 or 2-2 scored above 1500/1600 in GRE and 750/800 in GMAT.


In America today, if you asked about Nigerians students' performance from anybody in USA, the response is always thumb-up. I know mostly about African Americans' organizations like (NABA), (NSBE), mostly Caucasians but blacks included too (SAE). They annually award scholarships to outstanding college students, I bet you, and Nigerians take 7 out of 10 just for all US students and 8 out of 10 for African students. That is why African American parents get mad sometimes, claiming they are the ones whose donate funds to these organization through charities and their kids barely benefit from it. Going by this point, NSBE's national convention this year had to separate African Americans from African's students and awarded the scholarships separately. You can ask anybody that went to the Las Vegas' convention last March.

Issues of correct dictions, Whites never stressed that your sentences must be always correct as far as you are communicating and making sense. I have heard a lot of white Americans making silly blunders in the public, both common people and celebrities. One program like that, they used to interview white folks on the streets, especially down south, they would tell you they can't speak good English; because they didn't go to school and nobody laughed at them.
Just like you see professional African Americans speaking Ebonics; “we was, they was, the things was, “ I bet you would laugh at them, Main while, they could speak fluently than you as far as American society is concerned. No matter how sound is your queens English, you need to start from the scratch when you get to America. Other people can testify to this.

Soyinka isnt of this new generation of college educated illiterates.

okokomeji,
thank you sooooooooo much jare, i agree with your points. I have even had to correct some of my oyinbo's friends english meanwhile Nigerians are still obsessing over the English language.
By the way, you said that you were at the NSBE conference in vegas, how was it? i would have made it but i had to go to Wall street during that period. Were you in Orlando for last years conference too?

@y'all, its really hard on Africans because to compete at all we have to know a major language- naturally thats english. I remember one of these videos of Muh'd Ali in his prime were he stated that he respects Africans because they can speak english and their local lang. whereas Americans only understood english!

@Davidif, Yes ooo my brother, I was in Orlando too. I shall be in Toronto also. Las Vegas was fun and you know it's a crazy world. Everything is so expensive. I toured the whole Las Vegas and I gambled in all the prominent hotels. Can't do it better than that, you feel me?.

okokomeji:

@poster, Will you take that back! I guess for the fact that two or three Nigerians sent you unprofessional resumes does mean the whole Nigerians would be in the same way. Sometimes, you know how to proofread or pinpoint errors from other people's resumes or writings doesn't mean you are not susceptible to writing errors when you writing by yourself.

If you think your company picks students by visual of neat resumes; that means you believe in quantity rather than quality. Remember, you have a lot of organizations that openly help students to write resumes on commission bases. Tell me, if you see a student who has done a lot of research and worked in both Big-Four and Fortune-500 companies and had his or her resume not well put together, but got all the information and experience on it. Would you pick well written resume without experience over that?

Then, remember we are not so much familiar with resume thing like that, except you are being exposed to business world. And most students in Nigeria can afford Microsoft Words software; I think there are lots of reasons not to criticize NAIJA STUDENTS.

I know more than 150 Nigerians in USA, all across southern, US, who could not even make third class in Nigeria; but once they got to states it's always 4.0/4.0 GPA. What causes that if you ask? The results are cumulative in America, meaning what you got in Mid-term is fixed and would never come out in final exam and most time finals might just be %10 of your total grades. In Nigeria, it's on opposite, the final exam is 70 or 75 of your semester grades. Surprisingly, most Nigerians never got less than 3.5/4.0 G.P.A in US Colleges and got above 1100/1600 in GRE or 500/800 in GMAT. Then, you see Ife or Unilag students barely had  2-1 or 2-2 scored above 1500/1600 in GRE and 750/800 in GMAT.


In America today, if you asked about Nigerians students' performance from anybody in USA, the response is always thumb-up. I know mostly about African Americans' organizations like (NABA), (NSBE), mostly Caucasians but blacks included too (SAE). They annually award scholarships to outstanding college students, I bet you, and Nigerians take 7 out of 10 just for all US students and 8 out of 10 for African students. That is why African American parents get mad sometimes, claiming they are the ones whose donate funds to these organization through charities and their kids barely benefit from it. Going by this point, NSBE's national convention this year had to separate African Americans from African's students and awarded the scholarships separately. You can ask anybody that went to the Las Vegas' convention last March.

Issues of correct dictions, Whites never stressed that your sentences must be always correct as far as you are communicating and making sense. I have heard a lot of white Americans making silly blunders in the public, both common people and celebrities. One program like that, they used to interview white folks on the streets, especially down south, they would tell you they can't speak good English; because they didn't go to school and nobody laughed at them.
Just like you see professional African Americans speaking Ebonics; “we was, they was, the things was, “ I bet you would laugh at them, Main while, they could speak fluently than you as far as American society is concerned. No matter how sound is your queens English, you need to start from the scratch when you get to America. Other people can testify to this.

Good points. I concur.

Learning a foreign language is not an easy task. Most of the nigeria graduates are beta off than their asian counterparts in terms of English.

english no be my mama language.

bet all those speaking like heaven will fall, tell dem to put wat they r speaking down in paper, TRASH.

@Poster
First of all let me not compound your troubles by further criticising your post than many have done. I will therefore advise that you read through some of those very constructive citicisms again and learn one or two things to help your own "written Engilish". You clearly have made sweeping statements with your controversial headline and messed-up the body of your post with same thing you are accusing us NIGERIANS of. You will probably find some mistakes in spellings or sentences in mine too(as I post) but that does not make our English language skill "so Appalling".
Just like in most  other cultures that have been mentioned in the thread, we also have people who can't be bothered with how their labio-dental phonetics come across  or how their oral English is received. On the other hand the only way many Nigerians have learnt to speak English has been via people from their cultures which is why SOME Ibos, Yorubas, Efiks, Edos etc speak English with a touch of their dialectic accent or even have to directly translate what they will communicate in their languages into English.

Interstingly though, the generation before ours studied English(Oral and written)  in Primary and secondary schools. I left secondary school in the late 80's and it was a Catholic mission Secondary school that demanded you studied and Enrolled for Oral(we use to say Oruuul!!!) English even in WAEC irrespective of weather you  were an Arts or Science Student. Plus, it was a MUST that all students registering for WAEC/GCE automatically had English, English Literature and Mathematics registered for you by the School Authority, again irrespective of weather you are a "Pure" Science or "Dry Arts" student.

True our PUBLIC Educational institutions have been on the decline for several reasons but to label it in its entiety as "APPALLING" is a hugely exaggerated statement.

@post

English aint my mother tongue but ANYDAY, ANYTIME i'd have to speak it ANYWAYS cuz of the strata i sorta find myself hanging out wit, I'm a grad. .got an Aussie Accent that throws most people off when i start talking. . even when i've NEVER travelled out.

@ Poster,

You have to show by example, because there are lots of grammatical and spelling errors in your post.

So, you have to correct yourself first before correcting others.

Cheers.

@muzbo. If you dont know how to compose and speak your local dalect very then you dont have to be say  what you have just said.

everybody wants short cut to everthing, academics inclusive.

So Engineers are not supposed to have a good command of English Language?

when are you going to have good command of your own language??

even US changed the english to suit their own needs.

be a pioneer and stop following others.

even though there are so many so called native speakers here but they are not that perfect with their own language. bad commands,wrong spellings and so on.

typing mistake is a common error any of us can indulge in, so do not put the blame on the applicants
http://librarybookshome..com

na true jare mr richyblack wat oyb said is the basic truth,most ppl dont even have tym to read newspapers not to talk of novels. nogerian grads are not rea;;y the only ones cos the situation is the same all ova the world

interesting debate.

keep fooling yourselves and saying its not your mother tongue. the so called Hindis, Russians and Chinese are paying people craploads of money to come and teach them English.

Yeah the welsh have their own language, but since when was wales a world power.

and given that there are 250 languages or more in nigeria, where does it end? just as you dont feel obliged to learn someone elses mother tongue, why should i feel obliged to learn yours?

It's like these fake graduates arent aware that there ARE some of us who can speak, read and write in our native language and also excel in English.

No wonder those in diaspora are taking jobs away from you. Keep being bitter by making pathetic excuses instead of shaping up. Awon olodo oshi.

The yardstick for competence in a language is whether or not you can seduce a girl/boy in that language. Ask yourselves what language do Nigerian students use in their most intimate moments. If it is English and it is verifiable, then they rare competent in it. Forget about grammar, spelling etc, we have technology to do those.

A lot of blame has been placed on the tutors . . . without a doubt, they're partly to be blamed . . . but not totally . . . the so-called graduates . . . parents/guardians . . . and every instructor at every point of an individual's developmental stages - all share a large proportion of the blame.

Education is a life-long exercise . . . it begins right from birth, continues for a lifetime, and ends in the grave . . . a lot of parents assume that it is unnecessary to educate a child of 0-5 years . . . the assumption is that he/she is too young to understand anything at that stage . . . that's a blatant lie . . . they can, and they do grasp a lot of things at that stage - languages, values, norms, etc.

Medical doctors would tell you that a mother can communicate with her unborn child whilst still at the foetus stage.

However, the most important person in your life is YOU . . . whether dealing with personal or interpersonal issues . . . no person can do it for YOU . . . by the same token, education is all about self-development . . . by constantly reading, writing, and speaking . . . from infanthood through adulthood . . . these skills are not acquired overnight . . . if a person decides not to develop these skills as an infant, it's impossible for a lecturer to shove them down his/her throat as an adult.

Our reading culture as a people, a nation, and even the world at large; is near extinction. People watch TV and listen to the radio now more than they read . . .

The internet, media, etc are all good sources of information/education . . . but when talking about spoken or written English . . . nothing can take the place of READING.

@olalekan1, I don't gerrit! Please quote me so that I gerrit. What local 'dalect'

Who cares about English spelling mistakes and grammar? We shouldn't be speaking the language anyway.

dear mr man,u have written and as well imagine but ur own case critical,complex above all amend urs.

Geniall:

Who cares about English spelling mistakes and grammar? We shouldn't be speaking the language anyway.

why didnt you tell the Brits this before stowing away to Tottenham?