Each time one speaks english the other way, off from the normal and conventional ways, there is always an unconscious squeezing of face, jeering and show of displeasure from the audience.
We have become too attached to its concord, its tenses, its gerund etc once one gets them, there is usually this impressive look that goes with it. To those who don’t know, good spoken english sounds nice but isn’t an automatic conferring of intelligence and wisdom on anybody . It may be either a sign of being learned or exposed but not being educated or intelligent.
There are a lot of educated people who may not have the gift of spoken english queenly structured but are deep in thought, radiating ingenuity, imparting nations and making generations marvel in awe at the stunning potential they display effectively even in their so called cut and nail english.
Once I came across a classic looking young lady. Her disposition and carriage were classically poshed, her intonation goose-pimple- inducing, her command of english flawless, sadly she was shallow in thoughts and her written english awkward . I have equally met one whose spoken english was in total disalignment of the gerund, concord etc of english language but deep and critical even with her cut and nail spoken english.
“She come to see me” as against she came to see me. “I see him yesterday” as against I saw him yesterday. “Emeka and his brother was there yesterday” against Emeka and his brother were there. There are many of such tenses that we pay attention to , once one misplaces them one is seen in a certain kind of way.
Good and flawless spoken english queenly structured is good but shouldn’t be seen as a of intelligence, knowledge and intellectual depth. We are in what we are in today as a nation because of this over sacredness of spoken english in our system. Too much blowing of grammar with no commensurate practical results to show. We speak nothing into existence but frivolous things. We use grammar to cover frauds, manipulate things and cover obvious ineffectiveness.
It is about time we realised how far this over importance attached to spoken english has dealt a lethal blow to us as a Nation. Until we begin to realise and may be appreciate the need to scale up productivity, efficiency, talents and practical display of potential/skills even in a most crude and disaligning spoken english we will continue to get scammed by the cosmetics of queen’s english.
Some will say we need “Sabificate” not certificate, “Sabificate” not queenly structured english.
Isn’t it better to have someone who speaks like an “Omata”, cutting the tenses and joining the gerund, removing the concord but has the depth and creativity to make things happen positively? Isn’t it better to have at the helm of affairs those who misuse their tenses but will use their brain? Those who are more fluent in their native language, play around its idiomatic structures but with deep knowledge on how things work? Good spoken english is nice, but a queen’s english spoken into an empty space without productive result is a scam. In such a situation would it sound sarcastic to say who has queen’s english helped?
Who has english language helped? When our children have swallowed this destructive bait of english language being superior to ones native language. Isn’t this a destruction of ones heritage? falling for this impression that makes one believe that a child that speaks english flawless is more intelligent than the one who doesn’t but very proficient in their native language ?
“Igbo amaka! Asusu igbo di uto! Onweghi ihe tokariri ya” this is me talking about my native language. Is yours as sweet as mine ? Or are you standing before english language in inferiority complex?
Jarlath Opara
Jarlathuche@gmail.com
07068420002
