Nigerians are something else when it comes to adopting accents. I have no problems, if you naturally pick up a UK or US accent via schooling or upbringing in these areas.

But when an adult whose speech patterns are well formed goes to the US/UK for 3 months to a year and comes back with an accent, haba na wah o!

People who have not even gone anywhere, end up having these exasperating accents. Since they are fake, geographically you cannot even pinpoint who they are mimicking.

I have heard half American half British accents as if that is possible!

All these phoney fanatics include some so -called broadcasters who are supposed to set the pace and diffrenciate between fluent english and phoney english.

African China born and bred in Ajegunle went to the UK and came back not only with a rape charge but funny accent.

Eedris the rapper may not be able to string a grammatical sentence together but what really makes it hard is the accent he picked up.

There is this woman on STV with a CNN accent and Barong Eta at Channels Television who switches on accents like a bulb.

British, Canadian, American whatever side of the bed I get up from,

I think it is a sorry state of our English. We don't need to talk through our noses or drawl before we make sense.

Other parts of African take pride in their accents.

And even though accents in Nigeria are often subjects of mediocrity and "rasness" We can still afford to tow that fluent english line.


Like Olu Jacobs, Joke Silva and Wole Soyinka.


Why are Nigerians obssessed with foreign accents?

anyway i understand when someone is looking for a job in customer service and u need to come out of our natural african accent which is seen by the british as crude and likely to puch off potential customers but it may be carried on even when we get to our home.

but there are those who are trying too hard to be oyibo by force. even here in cardiff i'm yet to see a welsh citizen who can speak better english than I do. yet some of our people struggle to impose an accent on themselves

one guy was said to have spoken like an african born canadian living in london with an american wife and studying french in a german university

that is what we call gwogwotigwo accent

All these phoney fanatics include some so -called broadcasters who are supposed to set the pace and diffrenciate between fluent english and phoney english.

90% of those AIT presenters are like that, really horrible!

Lol, nice topic.I see this in most naija movies, esp. the females. can't even begin to mention their names 'cause it seems almost all of them do it. It gets me so mad. That's d reason i don't watch naija movies like dat. How can u sit down to watch naija movies when i have lots of american movies waitin' for me, just 'cause i love my country and instead of watchin' smthin' real, all u see is total BS. it's so aggravatin'.

I couldn't help but  laughed when I read this thread thank you so much poster. I hope the words get out starting form here, the thing don tire me 2 ooooo. Come to think of it on the other hand though, most of us that have been abroad for a long time can not completely speak with Naija accent anymore and it sometimes bother me. Thank God sha say I still fit rap our language correct. Nice observation, keep up the good work. Is there anyway we can send a message to those Naija actors?. I don't even know any of their names except Genvieve.

"sup porster? ain't reelly diggin whatcha callin' fake ass accent fakin'. Ya'll know I watch ameriken movies most of the time and ain't gorra be lookin at dose borin nigg'z imposin Genevieve on me."

Did I fake it well enough

Now this is damn hilarious. .

toluwalomo:

.

I have heard half American half British accents as if that is possible!

All these phoney fanatics include some so -called broadcasters who are supposed to set the pace and diffrenciate between fluent english and phoney english.

African China born and bred in Ajegunle went to the UK and came back not only with a rape charge but funny accent.

Eedris the rapper may not be able to string a grammatical sentence together but what really makes it hard is the accent he picked up.

There is this woman on STV with a CNN accent and Barong Eta at Channels Television who switches on accents like a bulb.

British, Canadian, American whatever side of the bed I get up from,

Half British Half American accent - Nigerians have many talents

You can say that again

Not just Naijans, Jamaicans too! The ones I especially love are the less educated sole speaker of Patois (similar to Naijan Patois) who emigrate to America, "assimilate" by emulating the inner-city black accent, and return to show off. Comedy Central!

Then there's the more educated who can speak English but thinks that to sound Jamaican is still not good enough. They tend to emulate white people, going nasal and all. He! He! He!

the ones who try to speak thru their nose just because they have been to America or London? Shame.

you blame them? you know how yankee people are too now. if you aint speaking like them, then they wont listen. since coming abroad, i've try to keep my naija accent, which a lot of them love (its not thick, but real classy. he he). then there's others that when you speak, they dont even want to hear what you have to say if you're not speaking thtrough your friggin nose. so i find myself switching from naija to yankee accent depending on who i'm speaking to. i love my natural accent, but sometimes i just have to adjust it and speak like them to get what i want and vamoose. shikena!

That's right. sometime the situation made people to speak differently. when you speak with oyinbo and you say Water with the ''t'' they won't get you, it's like you saying Walter (as in a person's name here) you can as well speak on for the rest of the day for they won't get you,   
so to assimilate, people end up talking like them o. although some are worst  .

yes o omoge. some just over do it to fit in. you'll hear of one emeka person (jjc) that just landed in yankee and within 1 month, he has changed his name to micky or mekhi and starts speaking yeye english like gerrout, mothafu$ka, shit men, wharabout, yels etc. pitiful. no be by force o. naija peeps to dey overmurder english

na waoo, how u go goyankee return no go fit represent , people wan make u show say u travel

Hilarious

@MP007 yes o, there's the expectations for a newly janded/yankee person to start blowing grammer, but haba, when a person that just went to america starts saying "innit" or "you alright yeah?", how that one go be?
some people are just confused about what accent to even speak in.

@MP007 yes o, there's the expectations for a newly janded/yankee person to start blowing grammer, but haba, when a person that just went to america starts saying "innit" or "you alright yeah?", how that one go be?
some people are just confused about what accent to even speak in.[b][/b]

lol!!! too hilarious.

as 4 me biko! i be naija born! n i dy rep me home!

i dey use ehn, tsebi, abi and evrioda jasitarian to talk to oyinbo! at d end of the day i keep on repeatn myself again n again n again! until dey get!
wich is tiring

bt trutfuli! d oyinbos lik it wen u speak lik them cos dey understand! i even asked 1 oyinbo and she said she prefered d changn of tone dan d african or yorubalik one!

lalaboi:

bt trutfuli! d oyinbos lik it when u speak lik them because dey understand! i even asked 1 oyinbo and she said she prefered d changn of tone dan d african or yorubalik one!

yeah, thats because oyinbo are lazy. they dont want to have to open their ears to someone that speaks differently than them. have you noticed the difference in service when you speak like them as opposed to speaking in your own naija accent? na prompt service o. the minute you blow naija accent for them, its like they switch off their brains, dem no dey hear you again. na so so "pardon?", "i'm sorry what did ya say?" blah blah. rubbish! 

that is true oh, unless you want to be repeating yourself 3-4 times. I had to develop small spreeing just to TA properly, if not I for spend 5 hours explaining what I could do in 2?

but of course, when I dey with my peeps, all dat accent bizness goes away, its just when its needed, no more.

lalaboi:




bt trutfuli! d oyinbos lik it when u speak lik them because dey understand! i even asked 1 oyinbo and she said she prefered d changn of tone dan d african or yorubalik one!

well, that's different. so long as u live there, there's no problem in that. Nobody likes to be mis-understood so u might as well fake it. am talkin' about some of these naija actresses who haven't even been out of africa alone. I don't remember their names. so many of them. And the annoyin' thin' is that they can't do it right. who combines british and american accents together?. lmao, they really do have many talents. please, american accent is not by force. they shld stop forcin' it even when the person is not actin' a part where he/she just arrived from abroad, they still imitate foreign accents. how weird is that? What pains me is that they don't seem to realize that it's a naija movie anymore.why would u be actin' a naija movie and then go about speakin' with an american accent. that makes no sense. I guess they want to turn to hollywood by force. what will the so-called americans think when they do watch these movies, if that's even likely. And they go "am proud to be african". wtf! I ain't seen no american tryin' to speak like a nigerian unless they are actin' that they're from africa like they call every goddamn country in africa. every country is "africa" to them.
PS: other people who speak with foreign accents in naija is no problem so long as u're not actin' a movie. Fakin' all these accents in movies is an embarassment to me. Why d hell would i want to show anyone a naija movie? i don't watch them much myself. what they don't know is that these people would understand them better if they spoke with their real naija accent. am serious. they won't understand u when u fakin' it. so, it's better to leave d game to those who know how to play it best---------- those who learn accents easily and can imitate any easily.
lol, let me stop. it's not like this would stop them actors/actresses but i really do find it annoyin'.

How about italians who stick to their accent? The reason naija dey fake be say we neva hammer our local dialect well well wey e go hard to form even if you try hard.

I can't stand Nigerians or other Africans dat fake American accents. I can understand when you kinda tweek it when your speaking to an America, but not when you try to convince another Nigerian that that's your "normal" relaxed accent. I also can't stand it when full grown Nigerians come to America and return back home with an "American" accent and refuse to drop it cuz "dats how they naturally speak". when i was in Nigeria, dis one guy just came back from da States and all the locals were just amused by his "amazing" American accent. Me and my cousin were so embarrassed for him but it seemed the other folks liked it IMO, i don't think it's easy for a full grown foreigner or Nigerian to live in America and then acquire a completely American accent. It may become lighter than before, but it aint going no where. IMO, i think Nigerians sounder funny when they try to talk in American accent. They be killing it with the R's. lol!
they sound better (MUCH BETTER) or at least less funny with their regular accent.

at least changing accent better sef. what about the ones that change their whole identity ? like changing the name your papa gave you. you go dey hear person wey dey bear jamiu from oshogbo go come yankee come change am to jamie or mutiu to mathew etc. i mean like WTF?  if oyinbo can't pronounce your full name, then teach them. its part of your identity. makes me mad when people think they have to conform to the oyinbo engligh names just becasue.  my name is the easiest to pronounce, yet some oyinbo people make subtle suggestions for me to change it so they can remember easily. i tell em to go shove it where the sun dont shine. if you allow me to call you "ojuju calabar" then i'll allow you to change my name. shio!

lol, iice @ that story. I understand what u sayin' but what if he was born here? just 'cause he's naija doesn't mean he can speak pidgin. Lol, am just sayin' but if he wasn't born here, then he def. forced it. Like i have cousins who are born here, even though their parents speak igbo to them, they understand but they can't speak it. And they all got igbo names, no english name and they say it with this accent, makin' their names sound funny. I just be crackin' up when they call eachother 'cause they can't really pronounce their names in d real way a naija would pronounce it. But u can't blame them, they call themselves Nigerian-americans" and they are 'cause they're all grown and have only been to naija once. What am sayin' is that i find it annoyin' if u're a real JJC and then u come out and be speakin' like that. uh uh. And all these people in naija who don't even live here and speak like that inside naija. c'mon, that makes no sense. who u frontin' for? lol. But do u know whether d guy understands pidgin or not?

@iice. girl, your signature is hella funny o! 

@topic. yes o, it is very annoying when someone that just landed in yankee 2 days ago is already blowing grammer even worse then you that has been there 10 years. i'm like shuuu, you better swallow back your tongue and speak right. i just laugh at those people. not their fault really, they just trying to fit in. living abroad does that to you. you either go with the flow and speak like everyone else or stand out like a sore thumb.

but please, keep the phone-e to a minimum. we can understand you loud and clear!

E funny if pesin name na Wade, na wade (w-aid) hin go say (wade in a pond perhaps?)

buhahahahahha!