Friday, April 4, 2008

I No Be Britiko.

Update:
Pammy is currently at the point where she loves her job, will it change in a few months who knows? I should be putting some new pictures up from last weekend but...hmmmm...hehehehehehe

That said.....

--------------------------------------
For those that have been following my blog since day one - I told a brief story of my birth and how I got to be called the Uni Jos baby. I mentioned briefly that when my mom went to Uni, her original intent was to become a vet but rather her love of books took over and she ended up getting her Bachelors in Literature and Psychology and moved on there to get her PhD in something else. Now, because my mom gave birth to me at a very young age, and you know how it is in Naija - I ended up spending a lot of my growing baby years either on campus or very close to campus (Jos and Lagos). Now, at that time because the only people that interacted with my mom were those that were highly educated and basically existed in the university setting, my mom ended up with a British accent(becomes extremely British when she wants to scare you or put you in your place). We all learnt the rules of speaking properly with the correct pronunciation, we learnt how to sound hoity toity.

We knew the rules. No Broken English allowed in the house. In fact, don't even allow the phrase,"I dey come" pass by your brain cells. My mom will recount the amount of money being paid to Corona school for our education and we better SOUND IT.
Fortunately, my friend Obobo was going through the same kind of rules. Her dad, being an author, had already instilled that whole 'hell no' to broken English in her home.

Imagine my surprise when she came back from boarding school and there she was speaking this language that was so beautiful but was definitely a taboo to me and her. I knew that I had to learn this language too. I found a reason to interact more with the "kuli kuli", "balewa", "guguru" and "agege bread" sellers. As I interacted (in the role of a consumer), I found myself learning the language that I knew that I would never be allowed to speak at home. I found myself absorbing this beautiful cadence, the way the words are formed, the way meaning is instilled in a simple, o!


I came to the States - at Rutgers University, I made friends with this Cameroonian girl who could read that ehm, ehm, that I was slightly aje butter and tea. (LOL!). So, when we will be hanging with other Anglophone West Africans, girlfriend will jejely just turn to broken English.

Now, with the amount of education I have acquired and I intend to acquire, I know that I am supposed to wipe my sojourn into the world of Broken English. But, why?? I love broken English. I love being able to type, "i jus dey go jejely, come see how dis bomboy come jam me for road - he jus dey talk, i jus give him face go".

Now, tell me - why should I become bourgeois again??

20 comments:

Ms. Catwalq said...

my sister carry go. if the thing sweet your mouth, if u like take am baff. no shaking
sha no go follow your oga talk am, dem go say you dey use style practice voodoo....

how my own level sef? u like my brokin?

Unknown said...

LOL!!

I love it!! :D

La Reine said...

Nah, your pidgin wey dey bourgeois honey, to each her own.

:D

LG said...

see make i tell u one tin my sista, nothin sweet pass pidgin o, n it comes in handy attimes,imagine area boys surround u, n go like," fine broda, nothin do una,d tin b say pepper neva rest, but i go c una next time" wat do u tink ll happen, ofcourse they ll let u go, OR u r in the market, n u start hagglying in english, my sista dos market women go cheat u no b small, but wen u go like, "ehen mamaefe, how bodi? ur children nko? how market? no worry o,e go beta" they ll look at u well well n dont mind leaving their goods to help u get oda things u want.
i don tire to type o, n anoda good tin about pidgin b say u n ur oga fit use am dey code eachoda, lol!u know na,lol!
hope i ve convinced u sha,

Jayn Sean said...

God! Only Him knows how much i crave to know that naija broken english ooo! Kai! I wonder who's gonna teach me! See y i cant leave without blogville? coz most are naijas here and i really wanna know the language.

Anyway i hope you doing gr8 girl. Been trying so hard to log into your page. But...well..i'm here now.

The pictures? Yeah, i need one for my own. The one with you in it. Please..**with a bended knee**..send one to seane@jaybabe.com

I'm begging you...for my albumn now! Whats your problem? Is it a crime that i'm collecting my friends' pictures to add on to my albumn?

Zayzee said...

i always laugh when i hear someone struggling to speak pidgin.
believe me, in sec school, we had a girl from Warri, who couldnt speak pidgin. whenever she tried, we laughed like hell.

abeg flow with wetin u like jo. nothing spoil.

@ jaybabe - u will open a studio soon oh with all these pix u r accumulating

Unknown said...

la reine: :-)

lady guide: I agree with you completely. Those market women definitely studied pyschology of the market place, they knew when to increase their price own based on how you sound.

Unknown said...

jaybabe: lol!! pictures, ehm, ehm...
we will see no worries o!!

:-)


Uzezi: come on! admit it. I write my broken english like a professional alaba girl. Oya, talk true.

guerreiranigeriana said...

lol....i agree although my upbringing differed significantly...but, i have been working on my pidgin...of course i still need more work, but i try o!!!....the thing is sweet...

...i think being able to navigate and assert your multiple identities when needed is a craft in and of itself...to be able to hob nob with the snooties so they can give you your money and then break it down in broken pidgin when discussing issues facing the community-to include as many people as possible-and how to solve them...then visit the village and break into the village language without missing a beat...that's what i dream of...shei you can teach me more pidgin...how about at, uh, merkato?!...;)...lol...

Unknown said...

lol!! guerria.....:D

Coming to your page now...

:-)

Thirty + said...

Na wa for you, na de tin wey you no suppose chop dey sweet you.

Honestly my pidgin was next to nothing but funnny enuff been picking a lot on blogville.

guerreiranigeriana said...

you're a virgo too?...did i know that?...clearly not...yay for virgos!!!!...

Jennifer A. said...

Abegi jare...you need not stick to one...lol

I enjoy being both bourgeois and pidgin English rockstar... He he.

There's beauty in flexibility...ride on.

Jennifer A. said...

Lollll @ Ladyguide, "imagine area boys surround u, n u go like," fine broda, nothin do una, d tin b say pepper neva rest, but i go c una next time" wat do u tink ll happen, ofcourse they ll let u go...

Lolllllllllll...d tin be say pepper neva rest...

SOLOMONSYDELLE said...

eh, you mean waffy has not come here to blow Beni pidgin for una, eh?

Ah, okay. I dey go call am come...

Waffarian said...

heheheheh, solomonsydelle! aproko no go kill you oh! chei! anyway, as I don land so....

Baby girl, make i tell you. Pidgin English get im own grammer too oh..not because i dey follow una yarn so...we get present tense, past tense, future plus past participle join.... okay, I go give u some free lessons...just for today oh....

I dey go (present: I am going)

I go go (future: I will be going)

I don go (past: I have gone)

I go done go (past participle+ conditional: I would have gone....


Simple verbs

Dey: is

ex: i dey go (I am going)
she dey go (she is going)
The ball dey for table (the ball is on the table)

Note: the pidgin english "dey" has no plural.

be: also used as the English "is"
ex: who be dat? mostly used in asking questions.


Questions words

Who: use English who
ex: who dey there?

Which: use English which
ex: which one be your own na?

When: Wey
ex:Dat time, wey u go market, who u say, u be meet for there?

What: Wetin
ex: wetin be dat?

How: use English how
ex: how na?

Okay, free lesson don finish for today, if una want more, make una halla at me.

Jinta said...

so, you're 'beware of dog', eh?

no amount of education you acquire need stop you from speaking in pidgin, indeed, pidgin happens to be part of your education because it is one more thing that you know (are educated in), which other people do not (are not)

guerreiranigeriana said...

chai....i'm going to hire this waffarian oh!!!...

Afronuts said...

Kai! U don bust ya bubble! So you were raised as a 'child'and not as a 'pikin', born bread and buttered as an ajebutter.

Anyway dont listen to what all those yeye peeps dey talk. See ur ability to speak pidgin as a linguistic ability to blend when u need to. U throw it away, u're doomed to be boxed.

Class is a bad thing. afterall we all breathe the same air1

Flourishing Florida said...

i feel u

but me, na correct pako i be. u know those girls dat wear torn dresses & their hair is flying everywhere were majorly needing doing, na me. The only language spoken @ home was Igbo, wen u go 2 school we can form all d 'funne' we want but not n d house. YET, pidgin english was prohibited! My dad couldn't stand it! Speaking English was unfamiliar enof 4 my mom, pidgin was too complicated (maybe she feared d english language she'd learnt would run away if she adulterated it). So, it was igbo @ home, english in school (i think i went 2 d most pretentious primary/secondary sch there ever was). I only got 2 learn pidgin in my uni, but see me now

My thoughts on "2017 New Years Resolutions for White Guys | MTV News"

My thoughts a) Stop tarring everyone with the same brush - not all Caucasians fit the stereotype.  If you get offended when someone mak...