Blah, do what you must k thx.
--Seun is a gay, don't let him touch you--

I am afraid I do not understand why most people are saying it doesn't matter.
Nigeria is an English speaking country so I'd expect all Nigerians that have been to at least secondary school to be able to speak proper English.
The national language is English, if you met a stranger in Nigeria, it is accepted that you converse in the accepted national language which is English.
French , German , Italians etc do not have to be able to speak English properly because English is not their national language.

Except you have lived in the village all your life then you can be excused.

another one from Europe, my language is Igbo language period and English language is my borrowed fourth language after, pidgin, Spanish comes English

What exactly do you mean by the queen's English?

If by it you simply mean good English spoken grammatically correctly,
then I can understand your embarrassment to some extent. But if you mean English as
spoken by the English aristocracy then you have no point.

You might be interested to know that the vast majority of people even in the UK do NOT speak queens English. In fact quite often native born speakers of English are often the worst speakers and writers of the language. You would be shocked at some of the grammatical mistakes and sentence structures native born speakers use.

So I hope this puts things into context for you a little bit. If your man ticks every other box then I say to you go for it. Or would you rather someone who is eloquent but spouts absolute crap?

i know this sounds rather snobbish but i usually find this a huge turn-off it on par with halitosis as far as i'm concerned. Common we all went to school and grammar was an essential part of the education we all had

I have also noticed Naija men witha different version of the H-factor than what Papermoon described. They add an H to every word that begins with a vowel. e.g.
H-Apron
H-eggs
H-Alexis

I don't understand why.

DivineOke, it would help if you gave me some examples of how he murders the Queen's English. It could depend on the extent. And I would be worried too depending on the extent. I am more tolerant of people who murder the English Language if there is another language that they speak well. .e.g. If he is Chinese, I know that I can't even speak 1/1000th of the Chinese he speaks compared to my English. Or Italian or Japanese or Puerto Rican. At least I know that he there is one language that he speaks well. English is his second language, so I am more tolerant.  But if the guy is murdering English but still not excelling at any langage, i would be worried.

I think the way one expresses themself says a lot about them and is important in everyday and business life because it affects the ability to get stuff done and get people to take you seriously. And Divine, if you have brought it up on a forum  like this, then this is obviously something that bothers you. Your lack of tolerance would probably only get worse. Right now you may be at the "honeymoon" stage where you tend to gloss over things but when that stage is over, there may be problems and the least thing he does will irritate you.

My father is very educated but there are still some words that he butchers. Especially sometimes in saying Th as "t" (as Papermoon described. My mother used to correct him when we were growing up. In the long run, she ended up picking up some of these bad habits.

Not telling you what to do. Just offering some insights.

love is nt bout da Queen's english abi??

@curious

bear in mind that the H-factor is noticeable in both men and women, mostly from the yoruba sector.

you said i yourself your man has who's got all the qualities you want in a man.

Then what are you waiting for. I once made that mistake with somegirl becos i was ashamed of how she spoke with an Igbo accent - but come and check her out now, she speaks clean english and i still regret leaving her.

So if you like your man do your best to help him so u wouldnt be like me.

Once again, I am with Seun on this one!

@ IBB, Thanks for that info. I hadn't noticed that with the women as well.

curious, you should look out for the H-loss which is even commoner among both sexes of the yoruba side. words such as head ~ ead, house ~ ouse, etc

truth is, all these things don't matter in a relationship built on the grounds of LOVE. they can however be corrected in a short while with patience and dedication.

IBB:

curious, you should look out for the H-loss which is even commoner among both sexes of the yoruba side. words such as head ~ ead, house ~ ouse, etc

truth is, all these things don't matter in a relationship built on the grounds of LOVE. they can however be corrected in a short while with patience and dedication.

it's true too,

@ IBB, all these things can be corrected only if the offender is willing to correct. In many cases, they are not willing to and rebel because they feel you are trying to change them.

Who tell una say English na our mother's tongue?

yea curious, you're right.

but Ndipe, i dey feel u 2 mush!! u don try toast white chic wit pidgin?

IBB:

but Ndipe, i dey feel you to mush!! u don try toast white chic wit pidgin?

Have you?

no, chinani!! you?

No I've never toasted in any language or any gender. But perhaps it'd work with an onyibo. Women like originals.

My dear,
so many people have said so much about your post. But the bottom line still rests with you. Theres this column i always read in sunday's thisday newspaper, written by the late pastor Bimbo(God rest her soul), and yesterday's topic is exactly what u are looking for, i think i addresses this your matter squarely. In summary, if u can not live with a bad habit of your spouse or boyfriend or whatever now, you will never be able to do so.Meaning, don't expect him to change after the wedding! Best u change him now, or accept him the way he is, but don't expect him to change

Oh man. That is one thing I will NEVER accept. Be in a relationship with a guy that can't speak proper English? Never.

Infact, writing correctly is also a must. I can't STAND it when a person cant speak or write correctly. Yuck Yuck Yuck. 

"Oh man. That is one thing I will NEVER accept. Be in a relationship with a guy that can't speak proper English? Never.

Infact, writing correctly is also a must. I can't STAND it when a person [b]can [/b]speak or write correctly. Yuck Yuck Yuck. Angry"



@thiefofheart, maybe you should adhere to your principles of writing perfect English, by editing your work first.

There's nothing to edit, dork.

ThiefofHearts,

Na wetin?You are everywhere! Are you looking for enemies!Whats with speaking Queen's English anyway,its not your mother tongue.Would your marry a man that murders your Fathers Language.

mrmayor:

ThiefofHearts,

Na wetin?You are everywhere! Are you looking for enemies!Whats with speaking Queen's English anyway,its not your mother tongue.Would your marry a man that murders your Fathers Language.

Im bored and I see topics that interest me and I reply, what's the problem? Besides if you werent following me you wouldnt know that Im 'everywhere" now would you? so ha.

And what does mother's tongue have to do with anything? Why exactly do you bother to go to school to learn English, if it's not important? Why not ask them to ban English in this country and make a YorubaIboHausa language combo then? English is important in advancing in this world, if you wanna sit and complain about that. Fine, just let's see how far you'll be able to go.

It's my option not to be with someone who cant speak English correctly. After all my years in school, why would I wanna be with someone that I can not properly converse with? Am I insane? Communication is important to me so if there's a hindrance in communication, Im out.

As for "enemies", if that's what comes with sharing your opinion on here then something is terribly wrong.

@thiefofheart, you finally took my advice and edited your postings, despite earlier denials that your discourse was perfect.

Think what you will, Charlie Brown.

By the way, it's thiefofheart(s).

ThiefOfHearts:

It's my option not to be with someone who can't speak English correctly. After all my years in school, why would I want to be with someone that I can not properly converse with? Am I insane? Communication is important to me so if there's a hindrance in communication, I'm out.

Let me get this straight,if your partner is African and speaks the same language you would insist on speaking in "Queen's English"? Would you marry a man if English is not his first language i.e Italian,French or Hispanics?

BTW,

Assuming that your parents can speak their own language and English,do you converse in English with them?

Cheers.

mrmayor:

Let me get this straight,if your partner is African and speaks the same language you would insist on speaking in "Queen's English"? Would you marry a man if English is not his first language i.e Italian,French or Hispanics?

BTW,

Assuming that your parents can speak their own language and English,do you converse in English with them?

Cheers.

As for my parents, it usually depends and being that my dad was an English professor for over 15 years before becoming chairman for The Board Of Education, you better believe the entire household had to speak correct English.

As for partner, considering mot countries in Africa has English as their national language, that or French. I would expect him to be able to speak English correctly especially since I intend to be with someone who went to school. As for conversing, we can do both. Sometimes English, sometimes Yoruba, why not? I dont see what that has to do with me not wanting to be with someone that doesnt have a full grasp on the English language. Same goes for the Europeans, as long as the person has a significant level of education, I would like to believe they understand English. Europeans are known for being fluent in at least 2 or more languages(including English) so I dont see what the problem is

Anyway I was going through old topics yesterday and I noticed that Layi pretty much made the exact same topic months ago saying the same thing and most people agreed with him so why is everyone giving the OP(original poster) and myself problems about this? Considering that it's a Nigerian forum, Im gonna go with the fact that it's because we are both females.

@Thiefofhearts,

Sorry to say but by taking the Michael out of people who aren't able to articulate themselves perfectly in English
you have created a rod for your own back. Check your last posting, it isn't exactly perfect, either grammatically or in
spelling and syntax.

Besides a persons intelligence or education should not be judged by how well or badly they can or cannot speak English.
I know so many people who are so articulate in English but spout crap half the time. Also, who tells you that Europeans
speak two languages including English. True, a lot do, but it is not always the case unless perhaps they are German or Dutch.

In summary, a lack of English should not necessarily preclude you from being with such a person. You have to consider all the surrounding circumstances.

VOR:

@Thiefofhearts,

Sorry to say but by taking the Michael out of people

What the hell does this even mean?

Anyway, I already said my piece and like I said before, a GUY pretty much said the same in some other thread and no one gave him grief.
Whatever, I gave MY OWN opinion on this topic, if it bothers you that much, TOUGH