npang:

In addition to reading novels, magazines e.t.c and watching TV, stop speaking pidgin english and try to reduce speaking of your local language, that is if you speak yours.
goodluck

Dont agree with the reduction of speaking your native tongue. that's why you have so called Nigerians running around that cant even say Hi in their own tribal language. I find that to be embarrassing

But I do agree with reducing pidgin English. Personally it makes my ears bleed. I can only take it in small doses.

My guy,
then spk wit sign language,
or spk pidgin like i dey type
abi u no sabi pidgin?
den your problem don turn spiritual 1 o

Medically spkn,
try dey brush ur throat like 6times daily

A Graduate

How did u get into university with an F in english?

Chai!!

Stop watching Paloma and all them gardeners daughters!

Go and buy correct English tutorial or english for dummies, it will help ya

Try Brighter Grammer

Try Brighter Grammer

@ niceuzor,
When I saw the topic headliner, I thought it emanated from you. Only to be surprised you as well proffer solutions to the question raised by the poster. I think you need to brush up your sentence construction on the forum though. Your language usage is appalling to the mind.

By the way it is Grammar not Grammer.

Get your tenses right!

@ topic,
Get the right set of good English speakers to speak English with it. It is a good way to improve your spoken English.

Ok here are my tips
1. Soak and tan your mind with great works of literature. (The Bible, Shakespeare and good mags like Time and Newsweek are highly recommended)
2. Ditch your mother tongue for now, and speak more of English and English alone.
3. Sing aloud to songs - not rap- written in English. (And make it a habit)
4. Eat, sleep and breathe English your whole life not just a year.
5. Hire a good coach if you can afford one, go back to school, take lessons, you may need systematic learning to tighten up your
fundamentals.
6. Watch, observe and imitate the style of good English speakers like news anchors on NTA and CNN.

As long as you are patient on yourself, and you work unrelentingly towards your goal, you'll make it.
Good luck.

Reading alone would not help improve your spoken English. It can give you ideas, new words, etc, to improve your speech, you need to start speaking English very often. From your writing, we can tell that you have a good idea of the language, so before you speak, try to construct your speech in your mind. Use new words you discovered often, etc etc.

mrpataki:

@ niceuzor,
When I saw the topic headliner, I thought it emanated from you. Only to be surprised you as well proffer solutions to the question raised by the poster. I think you need to brush up your sentence construction on the forum though. Your language usage is appalling to the mind.

By the way it is Grammar not Grammer.

Get your tenses right!

@ topic,
Get the right set of good English speakers to speak English with it. It is a good way to improve your spoken English.

Clap for yourself, silent is the best answer given to people like you.

@poster
Nobody is perfect in English, try your best to read & learn from others.

I don't think you have to ditch your language either (my Grandpa spoke better than Queen Elizabeth but was fluent in several Nigeian languages also), but do concentrate on English. I know someone said studies are more important but trust me, some people get into jobs by talking their way in, and some people with 1st class degrees are rejected based on their inability to communicate. If you are the best at what you do, how will someone know if they can't understand you? Especially these multinational companies, grades are just a prescreening tool, they are looking for a total package. I don't think English pronunciation should be as important as it is (although we do need a common language), but the fact is it is important and anyone who advises this guy that English is not important is not being fair, in the real world this could really be a barrier in him realising his dreams.

Anyway poster, I hope you have listened to the good advice here. It is true noones English is perfect, but if you feel the need to improve it then try your best and leave the rest to your other attributes. Okay?

Read the Bible.

Guy, what I will ask you to do are:

- make sure that you listen to news (both on the radio and also on the TV) everyday.
- read newspaper (note: you can also try some of our local newspaper too, like Punch).
- read different literature books (those that are written by famous writers).
- read encyclopedias a lot (if you have personal computer, you can have computer engineer
 install "Encart or Britanica encyclopedia" for you. These encyclopedias help a lot, more    
 especially me).
- read anything (at all) that come your way, I mean ANYTHING.
- alway use the little spoken english knowledge you have acquired to communicate every
 day (don't mind people laughing at you, but always listen to correction during your
 english conversation).
- always look-up any new word you come across (in the dictionary).
- feel free to communicate in english language with new people you meet, don't think of
 your low level of spoken english, as failure to do this may continue to keep you ashame
 to speak english language to anybody at all.
 spoken english.
 
I wish you best of luck.

Clap for yourself, silent is the best answer given to people like you.

_**clapping**

Sir niceuzor,
It is Silence not silent.

Get your tenses right.

@ Topic,
By engaging yourself in newspaper articles.

I'll also recommend a phonics program/software (in addition to the many suggestions already listed).

Good Luck.

Judging by your post i can say you are good enough, i am sure you are not doing English Literature as a course in the University. Concentrate on your studies because they are more important than English language, that is the problem with our education in Nigeria! many people graduate with very good knowledge of spoken English but are a disgrace when confronted with works that are connected with their chosen careers.

I am not surprised one bit because everybody wants to impress each other with their spoken English and subsequently ending up in learning nothing at the University

In my opinion, this is a very dicey suggestion. Yeah, Ideally it would be nice to forgo the spoken English and just concentrate on our chosen career but let’s be realistic, that’s just not possible. Think about it, how good is a doctor is he can't communicate very well with his patient? How effective is a Lawyer, if he can barely string a sentence together? We live in a society where 1st impression matters and one of the 1st things we notice in a person (apart from how they are dressed) is how they talk. So no matter how knowledgeable he is in his chosen profession, he still needs to be able to express himself articulately or he might as well forget being a professional and be an iya elepa in the market (no offense to any omo iya elepas in the house )

spoken English ain't got nothing to do with writing English. You could be the best writer on your block, yet your English could be be really poor. It's all about confident and partially, personality. A good Example will be Hakeem Olajuwon. He speak a very good English behind thecamera however, he is camera shy and try as much as possible to be out of spotlight. I believe your problem is confidence, let me tell you that as of reading this tread, your problem is half-solved! The next level is try to level up in that department. So what if you make a grammatical error? you can't get arrested because of that! MY advise to you is to just let it out your mouth(care free). You can also record yourself on a tape and play-back the audio, it will help you out on where to improve.

Good luck !

agreed w/ poster above, you have to get your confidence up, read aloud, speak with other english speakers you're comfortable with like friends and associates. Read and hear things in your language in english (like you read "nisisinyi emi aini ishura lo" and think to yourself "i need to go to the store now"). Observe their cadence and inflections, and try to pick up american and british dialects from TV and interactions to have better idea of oral syntax and inunciation so you don't sound awkward.

speak and it shall get better

I beg to disagree with the last two posters(Jaffarre and QC-1). How can on earth can his problem be confidence when he can't even COMMUNICATE without making a fool of himself?? There is nothing confident in opening your mouth and spewing gibberish just because you want to converse. He has said it plainly, he can't speak proper english, he didn't say he was shy!!

@poster- Read out loud to yourself and ask for correct pronounciation of new words you come across. Watch movies, lots of them, not the crap that comes out of Nolly-wood and please don't watch "Lockstock and Two smoking barrels" either. From good films, you'll learn intonation and sentence construction, and even pick up new words, not necessarily BIG words like most people like to bandy about.

niceuzor:

Clap for yourself, silent is the best answer given to people like you.

@poster
Nobody is perfect in English, try your best to read & learn from others.

@niceuzor
Keep deluding yourself by uttering hackneyed comments like this very one when human beings like you have achieved near immortal status with the
English Language.


I'll concur with mrpataki, you clearly need all the help you can get too.

Easy does it mister . . . read, read, read and read. A lot of people mistake "reading" for "looking" . . . too many people gloss through books and newspapers, merely picking up the key points without thoroughly digesting how tenses are used, learning new words and the contexts of use.
Watch newsbroadcasts and practice as much as you can in private, surround urself with good english speakers and try as much as possible to restrict ur use of ur local language until you are sure ur english has sufficiently improved.

To improve your spoken English, Hollywood movies are fine. Watch them with subtitles on.
There are DVDs you can buy on the subject at amazon.com too if your case is a serious one.

Read newspapers and magazines steady, listen to news regularly.

mrpataki:

Sir niceuzor,
It is Silence not silent.

Get your tenses right.

But "silence/silent" has got nothing to do with tenses in the context it was used here.  Stop picking on niceuzor unnecessarily.  That you write better English than him does not make yours flawless either.  This is the second time I've seen you attack this guy, unprovoked, just because his written English doesn't seem to match up with yours.  Dude, quit the condescending attitude!

bros u can speak well, d stuff is inside u, only dat u ve not discover. sexytitan& purist , u guys are witty, sensible, iluv dat, aside wat sexypur had advised , do take note of d following simple techniques
                                    1tell ur mind u can speak well
                                    2formulate stamp on ur mind a mental picture of urself as speaking good english
                                   3 watch educative n creative romantic movies n put 2 practice every lovin words u heard because ur subconscious mind tends 2 attract words dat are wrapped with emotion of luv. ur subconscious will naturally help u speak correctly.
                                   4 be urself be natural.dont try 2 copy others. observe wat sexytitan&purist told u. reach me at sikaz4u@yahoo.com

Purist:

But "silence/silent" has got nothing to do with tenses in the context it was used here. Stop picking on niceuzor unnecessarily.

''Silent is the best answer". Is that proper English to you? ''Try Brighter Grammer''. Is that sound English writing to you? This is a forum, if you do not want to be harangued based on your postings, then do not post! I have done it with you, and do not think I have not been corrected on my English context as well on this forum. It has made me a better person with English usage also.

Purist:
That you write better English than him does not make yours flawless either. This is the second time I've seen you attack this guy, unprovoked, just because his written English doesn't seem to match up with yours.

Hahahah very hilarious of you. Where in my postings did I state my English is better? You are rather myopic with reasonings and allegations of baseless assumptions.

Purist:
Dude, quit the condescending attitude!

Dude, learn the basics of a forum, or better still go and face your NNC dream.

Happy New Year by the way.

That's the problem with some Nigerians!! Some think that knowledge of English language is everything

Why should anybody make fun of another because of grammatical erros? Nonsense!!

@ ola2006  and all others
You do not need another school or books or any media. The best you can learn a language is from native speakers.
at FIRST: stop being ashamed. even every native speaker of any language, could not speak it well, when he started to learn the language.
SECOND: You need to speak that language often and you need to hear that often. Just with regular practise you will become more professional in  whatever you are doing.
THIRD: Have faith in your self. My husband always says:"I belief, I can do everything." And you know what? He can. We human would still run around on four legs and live like animals, if we could not. As more you belief in yourself, as more secure you feel and as better you can be.
And when you do not understsand you collegues, ask them to explain that to you. On that way, you will learn more words, than you can find in any dictionary.
And when you have tried all this seriously and it has not been working, than you can ask me again.
Just by the way, you guys should not judge about each other. there is nobody, who is perfect among us.

regards Jeannette

Visit our Website:   http://www.donlaromotors.com

romeo link=topic=102062.msg1849869#msg1849869 date=1200311050

Why should anybody make fun of another because of[b:
grammatical erros? [/b]Nonsense!!

Hi Romeo, I like Eros, espsecially the grammatical one!!!

I grew up with a father that made us listen to BBc news and virtually all programmes they had to offer. Would I say I was pissed. The end result today is that I speak impeccable english and it has opened doors for me. It is not new to hear some of my clients who are white asking if ive lived in europe before.

The take is this . You tend to speak more of what you hear and the way you heard it. Spend time with people communicating instead of watching all the rubbish they call nollywood. Read far and wide so that you can have information that you will need to communicate. Finally have a dear friend who speaks better to put you in line when you are offbeat and also importantly to commend you as you progress.

ruescho:

Hi Romeo, I like Eros, espsecially the grammatical one!!!

Dumb ass!!! you can't even quote well , Your stupidity is so immense that you failed to know it was a typo but i saw yours and i know it's a typo and i am not commenting on that

Bunch of fools

Just watch DSTV or cable TV for 2 weeks straight! You'll be brainwashed

mrpataki:

''Silent is the best answer". Is that proper English to you?

No.  But it doesn't have anything to do with tenses either, as you want to make us believe.  If you truly understand English language properly yourself, you wouldn't have corrected his substitution of an adjective for a noun, and subsequently ask him to get his tenses right, which has no correlation with what he posted.

mrpataki:

''Try Brighter Grammer''. Is that sound English writing to you?

The only problem I see with this one is the substitution of 'e' for 'a' in his spelling of "Grammar" - a mistake even the most erudite fellow here could have made.  It is neither "sound" nor "unsound" as far as I'm concerned.

mrpataki:

This is a forum, if you do not want to be harangued based on your postings, then do not post!

It's either you really don't know the meaning of the words you use atimes, or your rabidity, really, is something everyone on this forum should worry about.  Why on earth would any sane human want to harangue people based on their posts, with the lame excuse of the platform being a public forum?  If anything at all, the fact that this is a forum is the more reason why you should be reasonable when dealing with people.  This single statement already reveals the kind of person you are, and it indeed smacks of hypocrisy, considering the fact that you always go around trying to depict yourself as some kind of born-again Christian.  WWJD?

mrpataki:

I have done it with you, and do not think I have not been corrected on my English context as well on this forum. It has made me a better person with English usage also.

I don't know what it is that you have "done with me".  But I'm sure those that corrected you, did not do so condescendingly or jeeringly.  Why then pretend to correct someone else by using such a haughty overtone?  And you dare say davidylan is arrogant, when every single thing about you is an apotheosis of arrogance in its entirety.  Talk of removing a speck in another's eye, when you've got a whole 'forest' in yours!

mrpataki:

Hahahah very hilarious of you. Where in my postings did I state my English is better? You are rather myopic with reasonings and allegations of baseless assumptions.

You didn't need to state it.  You already implied that yourself, which is conspicuous for everyone to see.  And I'm not myopic, I'm just being factual.

mrpataki:

Dude, learn the basics of a forum, or better still go and face your NNC dream.
Happy New Year by the way.

No one is too big to learn, and I acccept that I have my own shortcomings as well.  But I certainly know well enough that on a forum like this one, it is behaviourally uncouth and morally improper to harangue people based on their posts, most especially when unprovoked.

Cheers.