Of Nigerians, Languages, and Accents

(By Uzoamaka Doris Aniunoh) - Two things I'm interested in discussing today: language and accent.

I am guilty of some problems I want to point out, but I'll talk about them regardless.

So back in Birmingham, I dated a Spanish man who was Spanish in every sense of it. Like, his English was Spanish English. His accent was Spanish. His style of cooking was Spanish. He had absolutely no problems telling me he didn't know the meaning of a very basic English word. He would use a translator to find the meaning of the word in Spanish and only then would he know what it actually means and the context it was used.

I liked his accent and even found his not-so-vast knowledge of basic English, cute.

Now, when I served in Abeokuta, it was different. I dated a Yoruba guy whose English was kinda like that of four year old, and I had no atom of patience for his nonsense.

Would it be because Nigeria is an English speaking country, and considering that the latter was my colleague at work, I expected more from him? Did I tolerate my Spanish man because, well, Spain is a Spanish speaking country? Or was there something else?

Also, 'you have a British accent' and 'you have an Igbo accent'-One is said to mean a compliment and the other is said to mean an insult and I just don't get it.

Is it possible to not have an accent? Aren't accents supposed to be a means of identification? Even people from England don't have the same accents. The Birmingham accent is entirely different from the London one. Same thing applies to Nigeria, the Anambra accent is different from the Imo accent. Although I don't know the difference, but I imagine the Lagos state accent would be different from say, Osun state.

If everyone had an accent depending on where they were from, why then do people point out your Igbo or Yoruba accent as though there should be an accentless alternative to the ways that we speak?

Why is it okay that foreigners can be lacking in spoken English, have whatever accents they have, and boldly so, but when Nigerians do, it becomes mock worthy?