23 April 2009
opinion
Bamenda, Cameroon - "English-speaking," I have learned, is a relative term. When we first arrived in Bamenda six days ago, I was excited to be in a region of Cameroon where language would be less of a barrier to interacting with the locals. Then we went out to Bamenda's most posh restaurant--we're still talking fluorescent lighting and 3,000 CFA ($6) entrees here--and I got a reality check. After spilling some Top Pamplemousse (Cameroon's delicious homegrown brand of grapefruit soda) on the table and floor, I went back to the bar to ask the bartender for some napkins. My initial request was met with a look of incomprehension. I gradually simplified my question to just "napkins?", but that didn't work either. I finally got the message through by miming a spilling beverage and wiping motion.
The majority of people in Anglophone Cameroon don't speak the Queen's English in their daily lives. The true lingua franca is Pidgin, a blend of English and local languages that is incomprehensible to a speaker of standard English. To give you a small taste of how different it is, prior to our mountain bike trip along the Ring Road I asked one of the local Peace Corps volunteers for a short primer on asking for directions in Pidgin. I was told that "which way to Ndu?" would be translated as "wu side Ndu de?" The word "side" does come from the English, but as you can tell, the meaning of the word is a little bit different than the sense we are used to.
That said, most of the Cameroonians I have met in this region can speak and understand English fairly well, as long as you adopt what the Peace Corps folks call "Special English." Special English entails speaking very slowly, enunciating clearly, eliminating contractions, and introducing a bit of a lilt to one's voice. It's funny, but this seems to be the one place in the world where the stereotypical "ugly American" way of speaking to the locals--i.e. speaking more slowly and loudly, as if the listener were stupid--actually works. I'm told there is one volunteer in this region who has got Special English down so well that now he can't turn it off, even when talking with other Americans. I'm pretty bad at Special English, which means that even here, Kate does most of the talking with the locals.
Some of the importations from English are downright hilarious to American ears. Whereas in the north of Cameroon I would be addressed as "nassara," here I am "white man." "White man" is a unisex and even a plural term; thus Kate is also "white man," as are the two of us together. In almost every village we biked or hiked through, children would shout to us from the roadside; at one point we got shouts of "WHITE MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN" in stereo from both sides of the road, the kids apparently competing to see whose lungs could hold out the longest. Another of my favorites is "I will beat you" (that's "beat" in the sense of "smack around," not "defeat"), which seems to be the preferred idle threat among children and Peace Corps volunteers. Cats are referred to as "pussy," and a kitten is "small pickin' pussy" ("pickin" somehow means "children"). But my favorite local phrase of all is "you are welcome"--Cameroonian hospitality in action.
Written by a grad student from Cambridge University currently visiting Cameroon.
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Well, I hope you will have a nice time in Cameroon and discover more positive aspects to comment upon.
However, the premise of your argument based on the fact that a restaurant attendant doesn't know what a napkin is, is very flooded. More to that, you do not use specifics to generalize results mr. Cambridge graduate. The problem might have been your strange accent to the restaurant attendant. He might be an uneducated trying to meet ends. Nobody has a perfect mastery of the English language without prior education. That is why even in the queen's land, english is still… [Read Full Text]
This writer misrepresents Peace Corps Volunteers in Cameroon as well as demonstrating that he should probably never venture out of the UK or away from Oxford in the future. Peace Corps Volunteers know that Pidgin English is called just that--Special English is something entirely different. Many take the time to learn the complexities of the language in order to communicate with those who have not had a chance to get a formal education. One thing that he didn't realize is that the average Cameroonian speaks several languages, including Pidgin, at least one local dialect, and possibly English… [Read Full Text]
THIS 22ND CENTURY BRITON, HAVE NEVER READ THE HISTORY OF BRITISH SOUTHERN CAMEROONS, WHICH IS STILL A DEFACTOR COLONY, THIS TIME OF FRANCE AND CAMEROUN, in nigeria, sierra leone, ghana etc all speaks a tone down version of english called pidgin, that doesnt necessary syas they dont speak english, as a matter of fact, southern cameroons is a different country, culturally, historically from… [Read Full Text]
I think you (author) don't deserve all the criticisms I read on the different comments above.
I think that you are making a good contribution to the learning of local realities of "English-speaking countries". English(same for Portuguese, French, Spanish...)-graduate or natural speakers of these languages should know that when a country is called "English-speaking" countries, this does not apply to all the citizens. In Cameroon as in many places of West Africa or America, you'll find the Engligh Creole (There is Spanish creole, French creole...) which is an easy to create and communicate middle and mix-language. In Gambia… [Read Full Text]
What an exposure of stupidity and ignorance. Mr.grad student, if you'd checked with the British Foreign service and/or the Cameroon cultural center, you would have learned something about the coutry you were about to visit. spilling your drink shows how clumsy you are. Anywhere, thanks for visiting Cameroon.
A relatively ok report but for the fact that you make it look like all Cameroonians can't understand English. Only the uneducated will find it difficult to speak or understand English. Americans, Australians, Canadians and Britons all have different accent when speaking, so too are Camerronians. There are times when a fellow Briton from Liverpool will say something and another Briton from Essex would be like..."sorry I didn't get you". Educated Camroonians will speak clear and very easy to understand Englsih, far more better than Native Speakers. Communication is all about understanding each other. Anyways, this is why Cameroon is… [Read Full Text]