₦airaland Forum

May be you are right. The two Brits who were my direct bosses are of oluwole breed.

1Sharon:
Ofcourse I have seen it, that doesn't mean they respect it. Brits look down on American English. Your comment shows have never interacted with a brit

Sunsets:
May be you are right. The two Brits who were my direct bosses are of oluwole breed.

And so? If you truly knew about Brits, you would know that they look down on American English. You have no point

Amanyanabo:
Bullocks! How was ur nite in Nigeria English is a polite question. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Why should I care what a Briton or American thinks

You are right, it's a Nigerian English usage. It is OK if used among and between Nigerians because they understand the context. However, when you are in a multicultural setting, what is culturally acceptable among Nigerians might be very offensive to people from other cultures.

You need to be culturally sensitive and aware. That is the message OP was trying to pass across. There are many things we do here which is an absolute NO NO in other climes. In political circles, it is even worse and rather annoying. Think of things like "I stand on existing protocols ", "my Lords spiritual and temporal", etc. Very useless inanities

darling4real1:
I TRULY DON'T ANSWER THIS!!

*Do you know that asking a person “How was your night?” is wrong?*

I personally, find the question very annoying. I usually ignore it. If I answer, it is with sardonic response such as, "only witches know what they do at night. Normal people are expected to be fast asleep"

That retort usually tells the fellow they have asked a silly and invasive question which is not part of greeting

The op is an idiot who thinks he can fool everyone else. I live in the US and this is a normal question you ask people. How can some idiot tells you otherwise and you believe it seems trying to impose it on everyone else. Fools everywhere.

ChristianEast:
Lol.

FYI op, we have Nigerian English and "how was your night" is one of them. You should have explained that to the dude.

please give me a hug. Your head dey over correct!

You should as well know that saying "responded back" is totally wrong.

We already know that the respondent will answer "fine" so why ask how was your night?


Pfft. The question is just asking generally, we just have to be specific like, i hope you had a good sleep.

Olodo, instead of advicing the English to adopt the expression, you dey do like mumu as if you no understand the gesture of asking someone how his/her night went.

Over sabi dey worry you.

I rather ask "how did you sleep"?

SeedofDavid:
This is a bigoted assertion. The people you claim to get this from still enquire of themselves, 'How was your night?'.

Don't just accept anything you see on the internet blindly. It was a person (probably more flawed than you are) that put it there.


Modified
Most Nigerians don't know the meaning of 'context'.... See response below by a British on quora who is a native speaker before you guys kill me with mentions.

The fact he is British does not mean he is an authority. What did you call him?
An information security specialist.
Google employs language professional s to work for them so google is an authority.
The guy in question mention some thing like a language sermonal.
One should know white folks who own the language still make mistake it all boils down the fact if they are authority.heard some years ago prof. sole Soyinka corrected a white folk.

SeedofDavid:
This is a bigoted assertion. The people you claim to get this from still enquire of themselves, 'How was your night?'.

Don't just accept anything you see on the internet blindly. It was a person (probably more flawed than you are) that put it there.


Modified
Most Nigerians don't know the meaning of 'context'.... See response below by a British on quora who is a native speaker before you guys kill me with mentions.

The fact he is British does not mean he is an authority. What did you call him?
An information security specialist.
Google employs language professional s to work for them so google is an authority.
The guy in question mentioned some thing like a language seminar
One should know white folks who own the language still make mistake it all boils down to the fact if they are an authority in English language.heard some years ago prof. Wole Soyinka corrected a white folk.

Amanyanabo:
Bullocks! How was ur nite in Nigeria English is a polite question. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Why should I care what a Briton or American thinks

U dey mind that mumu.......wey him suppose tell the foolish man say i think u 're being rude

This is a BS post, we all have white Bosses who routinely ask "How was your night?"
It might have other meaning besides the popular use but for the love of God "How was ur night?" just means, how was your night?

I do understand that our use of English might mean something else to the British. This doesn't mean our use is incorrect and its not just us.
We had a seminar on it at work. See below link for examples

https://www.google.com/amp/s/bridgesandtangents./2012/02/02/what-british-people-say-what-they-really-mean-what-other-people-really-understand/amp/

Stupidest talk ever I say that to my colleagues and boss at work and they respond normal..
Pretty nice just had a quiet one
Baba u really disgrace urself .........that is 100% English and that man was just rude ......from the way u sound I bet he just did not want to talk to you.
Next time be like I do think you are being rude and I find that really disgusting......
Then be like Bleep off cunt

Amanyanabo:
Bullocks! How was ur nite in Nigeria English is a polite question. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Why should I care what a Briton or American thinks

Nice one! It is not only polite in Nugeria, it is also polite everywhere the language is spoken.
The problem with our people is that they like "copy and paste" without recourse to further analysis. How was your night? Could mean;
1. How well did you sleep last night?
2. What happened between you and your opposite sex guest who slept over (only if the one asking knows that a guest is sleeping over)
3. How did your night duty go (if you are a night shift worker)

SolexxBarry:
How was your day nkor

means how was the sex you had in your office during the day.

wisdomkid:
Because they taught us how to speak their language?

Lol.....what of Americans, look how they rubbish the language. Example of American English, Where is everyone at? Dem dey speak rubbish ehn, but no one complains, they are "Americans"

Right from time,I nor like "how was your night" thing.
Na religion people nai start this matter.
Even witch wey sock blood for night dey answer say "my night was good".

cckalima:
my Bros I dey your back. How was your afternoon or how was your evening, what about how was your midnight. what happens when I. See you in the afternoon and I say how was your morning.

I just tire oo

SeedofDavid:
This is a bigoted assertion. The people you claim to get this from still enquire of themselves, 'How was your night?'.

Don't just accept anything you see on the internet blindly. It was a person (probably more flawed than you are) that put it there.


Modified
Most Nigerians don't know the meaning of 'context'.... See response below by a British on quora who is a native speaker before you guys kill me with mentions.

lol

darling4real1:
I TRULY DON'T ANSWER THIS!!

*Do you know that asking a person “How was your night?” is wrong?*
Well, if you didn’t know it until today, get to know with the help of Edward E Onoriode who shared the update on his Facebook wall.
I felt it very necessary to spread the word and help people know about it too.

Here it is.... as posted by Edward E Onoriode.

I attended a IED (Improvise Explosive Device) fusion cell meeting with some US and British EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) experts yesterday to discuss all the IED incidences that had happened within the week across Somalia.

At the meeting hall, I saluted one of the British officers ‘Good morning sir’ and he responded back ‘good morning to you too’

My oversabi did not allow me to keep quiet so I went further with the Nigeria popular phrase ‘how was your night sir?’

Dude was shock. He looked at me in a weird way as if I’d said something out of the ordinary. Something that’s sacrilegious which is an abomination to his ears. After some sec, he said ‘how my night went is none of your business’!

I was awed in shock. Normally, I was expecting a simple ‘fine’ ‘Good’ ‘Splendid’ ‘ My night was great’ etc. But he didn’t say any of these but he told me ‘how my night went is none of your business’!
I felt embarrassed.

For minutes, I couldn’t mutter a word back to him. I just buried my head in shame.

All through the meeting, I was lost in thought and I couldn’t concentrate on the meeting minutes. I kept asking myself within, ‘was my question wrong?’ ‘have I said something that offended this man?’ ‘could it be that he had a bad night rest and he decided to transfer the aggression at me?’

After the meeting, I did a little Google search and I couldn’t believe the answers I got.

Ladies and gentlemen, did you know the phrase “How was your night ” In English Language means “How was last nights sex?” “How was your night shift duty?” “How was your health during the night hours?”

Whenever you ask this question in the morning to healthy people who are not in sick bed, you’re invariably inquiring about their sexual comfort/activities during the night or how their night shift went and it’s rude to ask such mostly if you’re not closely related to the person.
No wonder the British officer find my question condescending because he felt I was intruding in his private business since I’m not too familiar with him. But I asked that question with a sincere and innocent mind without any harm.
Basically, how was your night is normally asked to people who are receiving treatments in the hospital or people who are on night shift.

Nigeria has really messed me up. Now, I’d be more careful whenever I want to speak with these white folks because I never can tell when I’d say something that’s offensive and invasive again.
By the way, I need to un-learn so many English I’ve been proudly speaking, they’re wrong.
My happiness is that I know the appropriate question whenever I want to enquire how a person’s night went now and it should be;

“Did you have a good night sleep?” or
“Did you sleep well?

The answer to ‘ How was your night?’ Is actually ‘none of your business!’

I have checked our local languages. Even as literal translation goes, no Nigerian language asks ‘How was your night?’ I am checking because of this phrase, for those who know, was not in use in Nigeria as recent as 10 years ago.

As my Doctor friend said to me, it may have come from hospitals.
It’s common knowledge according to the doctor that sick people often have rough nights and most deaths occur at night. So a doctor’s question to the patient during morning ward rounds is usually ‘How was your night?’ If we exported hospital vocabulary to the streets, are we now to assume, we are all at death’s door?

The proper address for mornings is simply ‘good morning’ and if you want to spice it up by being overly friendly, you may add ‘hope you slept well?’ A person’s night is not our business.

If we are Igbo it’s either, ibolachi– have you woken up. Ututuoma- good morning.

If Yoruba, 'ę karo' – good morning. You can go further as Yorubas are won’t do by adding “se daada l'ę ji’ – hope you woke up well?

None of these our local greetings intrusively asks ‘How was your night?’ So, No! It is not African either.
Let us be well aware when we leave our lanes to go measuring that of others.
����������
*So now we know!*
*Don't go asking me or anyone else "How was my night anymore?*

*Copied*

. In English semantics there is generation of meaning and degeneration of meaning.In other words expressions assume new meaning while some lose meaning.Therefore how was your night seems to have assumed new meaning in Nigeria ..The meaning is Did your night go well? I hope there was no trouble last night and so on.This is variation in meaning.In some part of London there are dialectal variations too..some say " You is not good" instead of "you are not good"... Semantics is wide as a linguistic level.Since there are societal meaning and situational meaning we should mind the way we correct exoressions so as not to create confusion.Remember meanings change everyday.

neyobills:
If I am any right I don't think how was your night is grammatically correct because it's a totally vague question in the first instance how was your night and how was your noon mean exactly the same and the answer is my night was my night not yours and vice versa, subtly put why come up with such a vague question when u can use hope u had a restful night which is a much more of a direct question in my opinion.

I believe you know what it means for a statement to be grammatically correct. So tell me, what is wrong with the grammar "how was your night?"

Being vague or not is debatable but that does not make it grammatically wrong except you're telling me it should have been "how is your night?" or "how are your night?" or "how were your night" etc...

Point is, the grammar is correct. It may be vague to you but not vague to the society that uses it.

darling4real1:
I TRULY DON'T ANSWER THIS!!

*Do you know that asking a person “How was your night?” is wrong?*
Well, if you didn’t know it until today, get to know with the help of Edward E Onoriode who shared the update on his Facebook wall.
I felt it very necessary to spread the word and help people know about it too.

Here it is.... as posted by Edward E Onoriode.

I attended a IED (Improvise Explosive Device) fusion cell meeting with some US and British EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) experts yesterday to discuss all the IED incidences that had happened within the week across Somalia.

At the meeting hall, I saluted one of the British officers ‘Good morning sir’ and he responded back ‘good morning to you too’

My oversabi did not allow me to keep quiet so I went further with the Nigeria popular phrase ‘how was your night sir?’

Dude was shock. He looked at me in a weird way as if I’d said something out of the ordinary. Something that’s sacrilegious which is an abomination to his ears. After some sec, he said ‘how my night went is none of your business’!

I was awed in shock. Normally, I was expecting a simple ‘fine’ ‘Good’ ‘Splendid’ ‘ My night was great’ etc. But he didn’t say any of these but he told me ‘how my night went is none of your business’!
I felt embarrassed.

For minutes, I couldn’t mutter a word back to him. I just buried my head in shame.

All through the meeting, I was lost in thought and I couldn’t concentrate on the meeting minutes. I kept asking myself within, ‘was my question wrong?’ ‘have I said something that offended this man?’ ‘could it be that he had a bad night rest and he decided to transfer the aggression at me?’

After the meeting, I did a little Google search and I couldn’t believe the answers I got.

Ladies and gentlemen, did you know the phrase “How was your night ” In English Language means “How was last nights sex?” “How was your night shift duty?” “How was your health during the night hours?”

Whenever you ask this question in the morning to healthy people who are not in sick bed, you’re invariably inquiring about their sexual comfort/activities during the night or how their night shift went and it’s rude to ask such mostly if you’re not closely related to the person.
No wonder the British officer find my question condescending because he felt I was intruding in his private business since I’m not too familiar with him. But I asked that question with a sincere and innocent mind without any harm.
Basically, how was your night is normally asked to people who are receiving treatments in the hospital or people who are on night shift.

Nigeria has really messed me up. Now, I’d be more careful whenever I want to speak with these white folks because I never can tell when I’d say something that’s offensive and invasive again.
By the way, I need to un-learn so many English I’ve been proudly speaking, they’re wrong.
My happiness is that I know the appropriate question whenever I want to enquire how a person’s night went now and it should be;

“Did you have a good night sleep?” or
“Did you sleep well?

The answer to ‘ How was your night?’ Is actually ‘none of your business!’

I have checked our local languages. Even as literal translation goes, no Nigerian language asks ‘How was your night?’ I am checking because of this phrase, for those who know, was not in use in Nigeria as recent as 10 years ago.

As my Doctor friend said to me, it may have come from hospitals.
It’s common knowledge according to the doctor that sick people often have rough nights and most deaths occur at night. So a doctor’s question to the patient during morning ward rounds is usually ‘How was your night?’ If we exported hospital vocabulary to the streets, are we now to assume, we are all at death’s door?

The proper address for mornings is simply ‘good morning’ and if you want to spice it up by being overly friendly, you may add ‘hope you slept well?’ A person’s night is not our business.

If we are Igbo it’s either, ibolachi– have you woken up. Ututuoma- good morning.

If Yoruba, 'ę karo' – good morning. You can go further as Yorubas are won’t do by adding “se daada l'ę ji’ – hope you woke up well?

None of these our local greetings intrusively asks ‘How was your night?’ So, No! It is not African either.
Let us be well aware when we leave our lanes to go measuring that of others.
����������
*So now we know!*
*Don't go asking me or anyone else "How was my night anymore?*

*Copied*

oga op , did you say it like SpongeBob or like an honest dude

TGON:
as in its so annoying. i had 2 reply one some days back....i was like ur "oga" dey house o

one came to me in Victoria island without greeting oo

'
Oga pls where's number 27 of this street '

I no reply her oo, Oga as in ?

TGON:
as in its so annoying. i had 2 reply one some days back....i was like ur "oga" dey house o

one came to me in Victoria island without greeting oo

'
Oga pls where's number 27 of this street '

I no reply her oo, Oga as in ? I don't understand as your husband or your boss in the office

victorian:
When guys address young ladies as mummy or mama, do u think we enjoy hearing such?


So deal with it

our is not common , but this Oga of a thing is very common with ladies now especially single ladies around 28- 40 years of age, maybe u girls are in a rush to see someone that u can call that finally

Nat404:
Common sense is not common for you. Your English translation above here for Mandarin is particularly wrong also. Would you ever get it right? I doubt.

See how you left the argument to insult me instead. At the end, you still didn't make any counter point.

So what is the translation for "chi fan le?" or (in full "ni chi fan le ma?"?

Dude, argue with points next time and do not resort to insults.

For those reading:

Ni = second person singular (you)
Chi = eat
Fan = rice (could also refer to "food"
Le = this is a tense indicator and serves to make the "chi" translate as "eaten"
Ma = this is a question indicator and can be ommited if the sentence is obviously a question without it or a popular sentence (e.g. "ni hao?" and "ni hao ma?".

Therefore: ni chi fan le ma? = have you eaten rice (food)?

A popular response response is also "chi fan le" or "wo chi fan le". This one is not a question therefore translates as "eaten rice (food)" or better still "I have eaten rice (food).

And guess, every Chinese student here in Nigeria uses this greeting now out of cultural appropriation.

If you depend on Google to argue Chinese grammar with me, tell me so I can stop wasting my time.

Renshi ni, hen gaoxin!

darling4real1:
I TRULY DON'T ANSWER THIS!!

*Do you know that asking a person “How was your night?” is wrong?*
Well, if you didn’t know it until today, get to know with the help of Edward E Onoriode who shared the update on his Facebook wall.
I felt it very necessary to spread the word and help people know about it too.

Here it is.... as posted by Edward E Onoriode.

I attended a IED (Improvise Explosive Device) fusion cell meeting with some US and British EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) experts yesterday to discuss all the IED incidences that had happened within the week across Somalia.

At the meeting hall, I saluted one of the British officers ‘Good morning sir’ and he responded back ‘good morning to you too’

My oversabi did not allow me to keep quiet so I went further with the Nigeria popular phrase ‘how was your night sir?’

Dude was shock. He looked at me in a weird way as if I’d said something out of the ordinary. Something that’s sacrilegious which is an abomination to his ears. After some sec, he said ‘how my night went is none of your business’!

I was awed in shock. Normally, I was expecting a simple ‘fine’ ‘Good’ ‘Splendid’ ‘ My night was great’ etc. But he didn’t say any of these but he told me ‘how my night went is none of your business’!
I felt embarrassed.

For minutes, I couldn’t mutter a word back to him. I just buried my head in shame.

All through the meeting, I was lost in thought and I couldn’t concentrate on the meeting minutes. I kept asking myself within, ‘was my question wrong?’ ‘have I said something that offended this man?’ ‘could it be that he had a bad night rest and he decided to transfer the aggression at me?’

After the meeting, I did a little Google search and I couldn’t believe the answers I got.

Ladies and gentlemen, did you know the phrase “How was your night ” In English Language means “How was last nights sex?” “How was your night shift duty?” “How was your health during the night hours?”

Whenever you ask this question in the morning to healthy people who are not in sick bed, you’re invariably inquiring about their sexual comfort/activities during the night or how their night shift went and it’s rude to ask such mostly if you’re not closely related to the person.
No wonder the British officer find my question condescending because he felt I was intruding in his private business since I’m not too familiar with him. But I asked that question with a sincere and innocent mind without any harm.
Basically, how was your night is normally asked to people who are receiving treatments in the hospital or people who are on night shift.

Nigeria has really messed me up. Now, I’d be more careful whenever I want to speak with these white folks because I never can tell when I’d say something that’s offensive and invasive again.
By the way, I need to un-learn so many English I’ve been proudly speaking, they’re wrong.
My happiness is that I know the appropriate question whenever I want to enquire how a person’s night went now and it should be;

“Did you have a good night sleep?” or
“Did you sleep well?

The answer to ‘ How was your night?’ Is actually ‘none of your business!’

I have checked our local languages. Even as literal translation goes, no Nigerian language asks ‘How was your night?’ I am checking because of this phrase, for those who know, was not in use in Nigeria as recent as 10 years ago.

As my Doctor friend said to me, it may have come from hospitals.
It’s common knowledge according to the doctor that sick people often have rough nights and most deaths occur at night. So a doctor’s question to the patient during morning ward rounds is usually ‘How was your night?’ If we exported hospital vocabulary to the streets, are we now to assume, we are all at death’s door?

The proper address for mornings is simply ‘good morning’ and if you want to spice it up by being overly friendly, you may add ‘hope you slept well?’ A person’s night is not our business.

If we are Igbo it’s either, ibolachi– have you woken up. Ututuoma- good morning.

If Yoruba, 'ę karo' – good morning. You can go further as Yorubas are won’t do by adding “se daada l'ę ji’ – hope you woke up well?

None of these our local greetings intrusively asks ‘How was your night?’ So, No! It is not African either.
Let us be well aware when we leave our lanes to go measuring that of others.
����������
*So now we know!*
*Don't go asking me or anyone else "How was my night anymore?*

*Copied*

Hausa will say Ina kuanna meaning good morning
Anta chi lafia, how was your night
Abi no be so

SolexxBarry:
How was your day nkor

It means how did your sex at day go