That Nigerians tend to love having foreign accents is obvious. You don’t agree? Simply turn on your radio and listen to the presenters especially on privately-owned stations, you find the On Air Personalities (OAPs) struggling to sound foreign even when some of them have lived in Nigeria for the whole of their life. We are sure many of you know people that went to Europe or America for a few weeks and now insist that the foreign accent they are trying hard to speak with is ‘natural’.

What many of these people with fake accents do not know is that there is actually a medical condition called Foreign Accent Syndrome, we can call it FAS we imagine.

According to scientists (Kurowski et al., 1996), “Foreign accent syndrome is a rare medical condition in which patients develop speech patterns that are perceived as a foreign accent that is different from their native accent, without having acquired it in the perceived accent’s place of origin.

“Foreign accent syndrome usually results from a stroke, but can also develop from head trauma, migraines or developmental problems. The condition was first reported in 1907, and between 1941 and 2009 there were 62 recorded cases.”

This essentially means, after some people have a stroke, get bumped in the head or just have a strong headache or even coma, they wake up and have a different accent. Imagine sleeping with tonight and waking up with a James Bond or Donald Trump accent tomorrow.

A woman, Michelle Myers living in Arizona says she went to sleep with a “blinding headache” one night and awoke with a British accent in a recent case reported by the Week. She has had the accent going for 2 years now according to local news in Arizona.

To your delight or horror, that is what FAS does.

Going by the way Nigerians go out of their way to sound foreign, it is not too much to suggest that this is one ailment or disease that many Nigerians would love to have.

http://www.opinions.ng/amazing-disease-many-nigerians-love/


cc: Mynd44 and Lalasticlala.

Most people seem to have it already in Nigeria.
I know one fella who went to Ukraine for post graduate studies and started forming American accent for me.