Losing >> sunday june 8 - 12:26

But I don't believe in negative reinforcement. And my name is very useful since if I'm playing a match I can just see what's happening in the top bar of the screen of whatever page I'm on: You are Losing 

Numpty >> sunday june 8 - 13:42

For me the funniest part of all this was the use of "Queen's English" to refer to the Nigerian English dialect. 

They differ on every possible level: grammar, vocabulary and accent.  

In the UK - and most of the English speaking world - the Queen's English means the form of British English closely associated with the monarchy and the educated elite who speak with a cultivated accent.  This is also called Received Pronunciation. In essence it's formal British English spoken with a 'posh' British accent. 

The very idea that a Nigerian native speaks the Queen's English is hilarious.  😀

Peter >> sunday june 8 - 14:43

I'm emotionally attached to this game, it's like my second wife

Numpty >> sunday june 8 - 22:25, Edited sunday june 8 - 22:36

For what it's worth my main purpose of starting this conversation about English was to try and help you. I hope this will settle the matter.

A lot of what you post is poorly written and difficult to understand; some sentences are unintelligible and most of them contain grammatical errors but can usually be understood.

That is not a criticism, but simply a point of fact and entirely forgiveable from someone who speaks English as a second language.  However, in your case it's often difficult to distinguish between the content being nonsense and the English being nonsense. For that reason you often get push-back and negative responses on both counts - and that may not be entirely fair. The other difficulty is that there is a significant mismatch between your English vocabulary (very good) and your level of grammar (poor).  

So I was trying to establish if there was an underlying reason that might explain the dissonance. 

It seemed to me that the possibilities were:

• you were deliberately writing nonsense
• you were simply being a bit lazy and careless  
• you were unaware your written English just wasn't very good 
• it's fairly normal in your area, and is influenced by a local language or Pidgin
• it's good or normal English in Nigeria
• a mixture of the above

For me, I'm still not sure which it is. I think some of it is explained by the differences in grammar with Nigerian English, but not all of it. Most likely some of the nonsense is either carelessness or deliberate. 

As for the Queen's English. I know a number of ethnic Nigerians born and/or raised in the UK. A few might speak the Queen's English, depending on which area they lived and went to school. But a Nigerian native, born and raised in Nigeria, might possibly learn to speak standard British English but would really struggle with the accent.  Possible but extremely unlikely. The ethnicity has no relevance - what matters is where you grew up, went to school, the education level and the people that you mixed with

Tsar >> monday june 9 - 19:13

I do agree that a Nigerian born and raised in Nigeria would find it infinitely close to impossible to learn the Queen's English. British English is quite possible though. 

For written English, anyone who pays a bit of attention to what they write should be able to come up with a coherent sentence unless , they're just not good at the language. 

That too, is quite understandable, English isn't everyone's first language. Quite a huge percentage of the Earth's population has it as their second or even third. 

Numpty >> monday june 9 - 21:26

Just to throw one other thing into the mix.

A while ago I got to know a few well-educated Nigerian natives quite well. My connection with them was that they were good friends of one of my children.  They were living and studying outside Nigeria in another European Country where English wasn't widely spoken. But they spent all of their time surrounded by others in an English speaking "bubble"; the majority of which were from the UK. I'm not entirely sure which part of Nigeria they came from, but I think at least one of them was from Lagos and spoke Yoruba as their first language. At least one also spoke Pidgin.

There was a noticeable 'Nigerian' accent, but I had absolutely no problem understanding them and no difficulties with their grammar. It is possible that they had already been influenced by spending time with British nationals before I met them, but I think that is unlikely to have made a major difference. 

Draw your own conclusions about our friend, the former President. 

Peter >> tuesday june 10 - 01:03

If my wife knew I played this game she would leave me and take my kids

onuelver >> tuesday june 10 - 14:32

So that's why sometimes i look that it look like English but i understand almost nothing. My English ofcourse is basic too that learned in school and i never was good student because being nerd would harm my chances with girls :) 

What keeps me going...if you have tasted some blood and you like it then you will want it more and more. There is just one domestic trophy waiting me and after that i plan to concentrate on youth academy. It must be best in Estonia. Albanian club is for continental ambitions as it produce more profit financially. 

Numpty >> tuesday june 10 - 17:09

Actually he's a genius in disguise.

They're all word puzzles. 

Some are complete nonsense, a few make some kind of sense. The really difficult ones are in the middle, they look they could make sense but the harder you try the more confusing they become. 

That has to be genius.