Hello Nairalanders,

Longtime no post, well am back!! Now lets see. I noticed alot of people on this job board really have trouble communicating i.e grammer, tenses, SPELLING!!! Especially spelling. It just kills me when I see someone spell test as "text" or aptitude as "apitute" or something equally bizarre.

The thing is you must be marketable for anyone to even glance your way these days,if you can't get through just on a simple forum, you'll never be confident enough to play in the big leagues. If i was a an employer of labour and I browsed through some of the posts on this forum, I'd blacklist some folk right away!! We say we're graduates, then let it show in all that you exhibit; We're supposed to be cultured, people. I remember a while on this same nairaland, someone raised an issue on the use of pidgin english in our posts, and he was slammed instantly from all quarters. I've never been a fan of "broken english" and some say it sounds awful on my tongue, which is just as well, because I didn't go to school to come out sounding like "an average joe blogg". I mean, how many of us can ask our bosses at the office "How far Naw?" or "wetin dey?"

Let me draw an analogy for you in closing, I heard a true saying once- "Dress for the job you want, not the job you've got" Simply put, if you like plain tee-shirts and jeans while you work with an ISP company or cafe,on your way for a bank job interview, please wear a shirt and tie. Likewise, talk like the job you want, not the one you've got!!

@ dargly,

That was a GREAT one! I am quite impressed at you level of profundity. There is no need to cudgel the laxity and tyro attitude exhibited by our "graduates" on NAIRALAND. For God's sake, [b]NAIRALAND IS A WEBSITE - meaning it can be viewed all over the world.

Let us represent Nigeria and its educational system appropriately. I speak good english, but i just found out i need to write professionally cause i work with a financial service firms that sell INTELLECTUAL MATERIALS. I have resorted to BRIGHTER GRAMMER and i was sent on BUSINESS WRITING SKILLS TRAINING organised by DALE & PARKER. We understand English is not our lingua franca, but we have been instructed in it all our educational life! Competition is very stiff out there, and only the fitest CAN SURVIVE!

My fellow NAIRALANDERS, let us work on ourselves and remain the envy on employers.

CHEERS.[/b]

SORRY ABOUT THE typing error. I meant , envy of employers.

ONE BIG LOVE TO YOU ALL!

@ogs, you have made that same mistake just few seconds na waoo

Dargly, that piece was nice! I hope fellow nairalanders would take a cue from that but Dargly, mistakes cant be ruled out since there aint none who is perfect. An example was the 'grammer' you typed.See what i mean.

@stephberts I agree with you that we can't be 100% all of the time, but when you see a typographical error you know what the intention was, and you generally tend to move on reading. Just like ogs, the other poster, he made a few typos as well and made out to correct them. We can't rule out typos really, I scan top news websites from time to time and I still see some errors that escape the editors and proof-readers, what with all the spell checks and what have you!!

All in all, english is still a foreign language to us all, so we keep learning it everyday.

@ogs, Thank you!

@stellose, there you go again,

no doubt you write good english but let me remind you that most of the postings and write up here are done by unemployed graduates.They dont have cheap access to internet and pay ttru their nose to brouse,post and contribute to this forum.In Lagos an hour is cost two hundred naira,in this kind of situation one cares not about the accuracy but the SPEED inorder to maximally utilize TIME.THINGS ARE HARD YOU KNOW, ?

Darly,
No doubt you write good english but let me remind you that most of the postings and write up here  are done by unemployed graduates.They dont have cheap access to internet and pay ttru their nose to brouse,post and contribute to this forum.In Lagos an hour is cost two hundred naira,in this kind of situation one cares not about the accuracy but the SPEED inorder to maximally utilize TIME.THINGS ARE HARD YOU KNOW, ?

Dan,an Unemployed graduate does not translate to an uneducated graduate. If you must be chosen ahead of others then you must be ahead of the others. If you had to apply online for a vacancy and because of time constraint, as you put it, you sacrifice accuracy for speed, your application is headed for the trash can. Where you abbreviate or use slangs instead of spelling it out as it is, you lose points and credibility;nobody wants to hire a liability!!!

Dargly,
You seemed Johnbull today. You've got a job with Rhythm 93.7 or Stv.?Before I go futher, hope the spelling of my Rhythm is correct. Please check your 21st Century Chambers for me. I pondered into your text not test this time and I found it to quite interesting. Though, you can't tell a wafarian not to yan pidgin, na their own lingua franca for the end. Trust Omo Bendel! Pidgin has come to stay. Our educationists have been carrying out researchers to see how they can come out with the Pidgin English dictionary.

Nairalnders, how una see this developement? Comments!!!

Hello!
please check up this website for job recruitment:www.qedjobfair.com

darqly:

The thing is you must be marketable for anyone to even glance your way these days,if you can't get through just on a simple forum, you'll never be confident enough to play in the big leagues. If i was a an employer of labour and I browsed through some of the posts on this forum, I'd blacklist some folk right away!! We say we're graduates, then let it show in all that you exhibit; We're supposed to be cultured, people. I remember a while on this same nairaland, someone raised an issue on the use of pidgin english in our posts, and he was slammed instantly from all quarters. I've never been a fan of "broken english" and some say it sounds awful on my tongue, which is just as well, because I didn't go to school to come out sounding like "an average joe blogg". I mean, how many of us can ask our bosses at the office "How far Naw?" or "wetin dey?"

Abeg no Employer ^{*in their right frame of mind*} would visit nairaland to hunt for applicants only to judge them by their post.If they did then they must be re-hired!
_{Jobseeker should know that spelling or grammatical on application letter or CV is not acceptable}

Nairaland is not a formal forum ^{though oga Seun try to make us speak correct english} It is not a must.
Even the correct Ajebo would flow in pidgin for effizy sake
this is my opinion.




Incase you were wondering am no jobseeker!

@ diyobdw, I reiterate, at least on the job board, keep the english simple and concise. You can't even understand some of the ads some people put up here because of the poor literature. And the rejoinders are even worse, this thing becomes a habit eventually, I should know. There is nothing like your "application english and spelling" being different from your "Nairaland english and spelling". If the admin was in such a rush all the time, I guess we'd have all moved on to better forums instead of one where you spend ages trying to decode what anyone has to say.

@eseaba, I actually prefer Websters dictionary, just in case you were curious. Well, wafarians can "pidgin on", but until I see the text on their payslips written in pidgin, I'm sure they'll keep applying and writing in the queens english.

darlng,
that was a good one, never mind the critics, i like the way you have handled all their responses it shows you know what you are saying and you are sure of yourself.
Nairalanders,
life is what you make out of it , if you decide to say things are bad therefore you call yourself a poor man then pychologically you think poverty, learn to think big and have a purpose and a vision for your life, without a vision you can hardly achieve anything, learn to improve on yourself , invest in your personality not in fashion get yourself a small dictionary, a bible and read wide and wild , there is no limit to what you can learn and submit yourself to criticisms which provides you with a wealth of knowledge, no one knows it all some of us cannot take criticisms but i tell you , look deeper into it there is a message for you in it.
i love you all

IS NIGER DELTA PROBLEM NOW A CAMPAIGN MANIFESTO?

It baffles me the way some of our politicians who in the tim,e past have failed this nation use an area as a campaign manifesto, imagine Atiku who was with the present administration for a little below 8 years without effecting any meaningful change, but rather was concerned with wealth aggradisement, use the niger delta region which ordinarily is a sub set of the whole (nigeria) as his basic campaign point, what a basterdisation of politics and governance. Atiku that was in charge of privatisation of government parastatles and made a mess of the exercise is today claimning sainthood, I pity Nigeria for the existence of the likes of Atiku, OBJ, and Fani Kayode whose father was among the brigandage that debased nigeria to a poverty strcken nation by his generations lack of justfulness in acquiring the nations wealth for personal ends.

I pledge to NIgeria my country now rest on their lips not intheir minds, to be faithful loyal and honest, now relegated to trhe background as corruption and political killings, use of tugs, gratifications and tramppling of opposition now pervades the very fabrics of the nation. To serve Nigeria with all my strenght, by applying all their strenght in loothing the nations treasury. To defend her unity by engendering nepotism, sectionalism, tribalism and killing of the whole Odi clan of Bayelsa state. And uphold her honour nad glory by paying lip service to the developement of the nation and fueling political and religious upheavals.
GOD SAVE THIS NATION.

KNUCKLES

darqly:

@ diyobdw, I reiterate, at least on the job board, keep the english simple and concise. You can't even understand some of the ads some people put up here because of the poor literature. And the rejoinders are even worse, this thing becomes a habit eventually, I should know. There is nothing like your "application english and spelling" being different from your "Nairaland english and spelling". If the admin was in such a rush all the time, I guess we'd have all moved on to better forums instead of one where you spend ages trying to decode what anyone has to say.

Uncle which levels?

I still dont get it! i dey blow as per grama concern but abeg it not such a big deal.The jobseeker & employers on N/L are all funseeker.

Would you say they should go to night clubs in suit because the might meet thier next boos there?

dargly,
No wonder you have got a job and forgotten so easily what poeple go through without job.Listen", NOT EVERYBODY CAN AFORD ENOUGH MONEY TO BROUSE ADVERTS,POST APPLICATION AND CONTRIBUTE TO NAIRALAND WITH THE VERY HIGH COST OF INTERNET SERVICES IN NIGERIA"May be you have a free internet access in your office or home but dont forget that everybody is not equally privilledged.For those of you that have easy acccess,type well/correctly and post more job adverts, Help us keep Our Nairaland alive.

nairaland users,
this is a topic i think we should take very serious. selling yourself goes even beyond your gramer construction. your dressing and colour combination is also an important aspect. all these are what will be assessed in your interview. you can only get used to all these by taking note of them even before the job interview. a lot of people take some things forgranted especially while writing or dressing, and these things might mar our chances of getting our dream job.

Selling you self
Just imagine you are a product (like milk)in a shopping mall with thousands of other brand waiting to be bought.
But with the advantage of having the ability to express yourself.

Who are you?
Why should i buy you?
What do i stand to gain?
Why not the next guy next to you or the cute looking chic blushing out there?

_{-I - being the employer not me}

Do you stand a chance?
Before and after you apply communicate why you are the right man for the job simple!

@darqly,
Good point!

The first stage in any recruitment process is the resume submission and/or application letter. As an employer, I will not even consider wasting precious time on any application submitted by a university graduate who cannot make a correct sentence in english.

Little wonder why UK and US universities often insist that Nigerian students sit for and pass TOEFL tests even though Nigeria is an english speaking country.

Job seekers, get your acts together, polish that CV/resume. Do your spell and tense checks. You should always be ready to make a good impression of yourself.

Remember, you'll never get a second chance to make a first impression.

To conclude, has anyone ever wondered why some people have several job offers at the same time while some have never been invited for a test?

The most important thing is not being denied the usage of pidgin or broken English, it is the ability to write and speak English language correctly when it is time to do so, like in Nairaland. Alot of graduates find it difficult to speak or write English language correctly because, they have been used to pidgin English or at best, their native languages. Remember, practice makes perfect. You are perfect in pidgin English because you been practicing it ever since. You can have a good command of English language by practicing it henceforth. A good footballer practices more than other, so also does a good orator. Also practice spelling and checking them up in the dictionary. In pronounciation, try to master the phonetic pronounciation because it goes a long way to market you especially during job interviews.

Dagly you've gotta realize that some of us either surf with our phones or browse with limited times hence the mistake(s)

Darly,you ve made urself clear,ofcourse,anyone that fill an online job form without the right spellings and grammer ve tacticslly denied him/herself of the said job.

oga dargly abi wetin you call yourself , do you think most of those on the nairaland websites are stark illiterates, look the english language we speak, is not our lingua franca, mind you we have varieties of this english language, do u even know that the engish language that we speak or write in nigeria is also known as the nigerian english? it is very different from the british standard english, u just made so grammatical errors by using the word 'grammer' instead of 'grammar'.
look why are we just trying to imitate this white man's language, afterall this is a nigerian website and i see no crime if other words are used,typographcal errors dont determine an individual's fluency in english, mind u , it isn't everyone hu is very good on the keyboard so watch it mister

mikkyluv:

oga dargly abi wetin you call yourself , do you think most of those on the nairaland websites are stark illiterates, look the english language we speak, is not our lingua franca, mind you we have varieties of this english language, do u even know that the engish language that we speak or write in nigeria is also known as the nigerian english? it is very different from the british standard english, u just made so grammatical errors by using the word 'grammer' instead of 'grammar'.
look why are we just trying to imitate this white man's language, afterall this is a nigerian website and i see no crime if other words are used,typographcal errors don't determine an individual's fluency in english, mind u , it isn't everyone hu is very good on the keyboard so watch it mister

I assume you are either IN university or have graduated. Either way when you were in school, did you tell your lecturers that they should stop teaching you in the "white man's language"?

I hate when people make that dumb excuse. You people are not the only ones in the world with "mother tongue" thus there shouldnt be any excuse for writing like semi-illiterates.

I've really had a good time going thru all the replies to darqly's

posting and its been a blessing to me in many ways.
I'd wanted to reply darqly immediately but coz of time i couldn't do

dat but i'm happy that i didn't coz my reply wouldn't have been what

i'm sending today. Seeing all these replies and contributions today i

find it difficult just to go like that without making any contribution.

I want us to understand that it is for our own good to write good

English coz it helps in many ways. We can just start today in this

forum and with our critics in here we'll surely improve and one day u

might just see yourself writing even better than him (Darqly)and i'm

sure he'll be happy to have done that. Let me give u this example. When

i entered the university my spoken English was not too good and i had a

very good friend then who mocks me but at the same time correct all my

mistakes. In 2nd semester we took a course GES 101 (Use of English) in

which i scored higher than him (though we had same grade). My friend

was so happy for me because he realized his criticism was constructive

and thanked me for believing in him. We both lived together throughout

our stay in the university and graduated with same grade in same

department.
Let us believe in his critism and try to change for the better.
On the issue of Pidgin English, i'm not against it but i think we

should know the right time to use it.

ONE LOVE

@ Mikkyluv, The spelling error I made has already been pointed out by the first person to respond to this topic. I could've modified it, but it's a MISTAKE, so what the heck? I decided to let it be. Shows that mistakes do happen, but you still understood what the message was trying to convey. From your tone, you sound like one who has a large book of "reasons why you must fail," bound and ready for publishing!! Please stop encouraging mediocrity with a myriad of excuses. English is not our native tongue? you should've responded in YOUR native tongue then. The people who don't mind their language or tenses, gradually UN-educate themselves, slowly, but they do get there eventually.

@ essojay, Help me tell them, Use your pidgin at the right time if you must, otherwise, just stay off it, it adds no value far as I'm concerned in the long run.

hi darqly i really would appreciate it if you would mind your diction, your choice of words are rather very annoying, the mere fact that i sent the previous mail doesnt mean that i am not educated and to the other lady hu says if i just left school bla bla bla, i studied English as a course and all i was just trying to do was to point out to you guys a critical survey of the linguistic problems nigerians face in learning this language, thus when they even try their best in speaking or writing, they still do not meet up to expectations, so i was just trying to make up a point but, to be candid with you i am kind of dissapointed at the rude remarks some nairalanders make. Anyway, i always believe that an educated or cultured mind should always add curtsey as one of its characteristics

HI

I also join those commending you for starting this thread.

It always amaze me when i see a graduate who cannot express himself properly in a public forum like this.
Thanks.KEEP IT UP!

Ever heard of spacing?