Tuesday, September 30, 2008
I’ve never sought to purposely offend anyone. And if ever I do so, it would not be deliberate. I’m not a saint but I prefer to get on amiably with people. It makes life so much easier. But at times, one can’t avoid upsetting people.
Yesterday I was in a Journalism lecture and a certain blog post was read for us. The blogger had dwelt on the issue of conforming to university life and mentioned something about changing one’s way of speaking. Which got me thinking. You see, I was educated at a semi- private school and my English is quite good. As my posts can testify. No, it’s not due to using a spell check. Truly. Now, my tone of speaking is another matter. I’ve realised that most people speak in certain way. I’m not sure how top describe it. I would say, through their nose, with a certain twang. Like the way they speak in American movies.
For Caucasians, I get it. That is the way they naturally speak. At least if they are English. And for many blacks, I get it too. That is probably the way they were taught to speak in private schools. Though God knows why. Not that the way they speak is bad. I’m really concerned about some of my peers who, before they came to Rhodes, spoke in a different way. I know of a girl who went to the same school as I. When I heard her speak to some peers the other day, I was shocked. If I hadn’t seen her face, I wouldn’t have believed it was her. She sounded as if she was speaking through her nose. And I don’t remember her speaking like that during our school days.
My point is, though it’s good to conform , sometimes we overdo it. I personally wouldn’t be caugtht dead speaking the kind of English that seems to come out through my nose. I mean, I don’t expect a Frenchman to sound like an Englishmen, umXhosa to sound like a Shona person and so on. The differences in the way we speak is another part of our diversity. I really have to give something to the Nigerians. They speak English in their own way. Love them or hate them, it is part of their identity. I’m not saying that anyone should not sound like anyone in particular or anything like that, but I’m just wondering if maybe we take conformity to university life too far sometimes. Food for thought.
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