To ask what has happened to BBC reporting? Mariah Carey

[Skye109]

Please can someone explain this report to me??
https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/articles/cqxjq7x17qzo

Further proof that the BBC should be shut down. £290 million of taxpayers money for this? On top of the already extortionate licence fee?

Why is it a waste of money? Eastenders costs £29.9 million a year, is that a waste too?

I personally found the thought of the op reading it and being incredibly confused quite amusing, because its close enough to English you would find it very strange if didn’t understand it!

If people use it and like it then obviously it’s a good thing?

I would like to see how many people use it. It would have to be a lot of people to be worth £290 million. Especially when the stories are just translations of ones already printed in English.

I think they should call it Nigerian Pidgin or West African Pidgin considering that other cultures also typically refer to their languages as pidgin (Hawaiian and Papua New Guinea for example).

Off topic, but @Another2Cats , it was Henry V not Henry IV at Agincourt.

Thank you, you're right. I was just typing quickly and got the Henrys mixed up.

Have a quick Google of the population of West/Central Africa - pidgin is spoken by more than 75 million people in those regions; UK population is ~67million. It’s a bigger audience than we are.

Just because they speak it though, doesn't necessarily mean they want to read articles written the same way.

I use slang, shorten words, use poor English often when speaking ie I don't speak like a newsreader 24/7. If I was reading a news article that included much of my day to day lingo I'd be horrified 😂

If it weren't for writers using their everyday language and translating things into that everyday language despite the shock/horror of how 'uncouth' it is, we wouldn't have Beowulf, Chaucer, Shakespeare or the Bible - the latter being the root of how the entire world has been shaped over the last 2000 years. Or a functioning legal system.

It's an immensely political and sociological matter to have a groups' own words represented, legitimised and shared. It makes ideas accessible without relying upon somebody else (such as a priest) to interpret them. It enables people with less power to check for themselves if the Law actually says what they are being told what it is. It enables them to communicate ideas with others. It enables them to trade items, ideas and is independent of an education system that may be inaccessible, extremely controlling/politicised, acting directly against the interests of the subjects or being used as a tool of oppression.

That's why historically, oppressed populations have their languages erased - to remove their power, cohesion, identity and communication.

Populations having the power and freedom of their own language is a very dangerous thing for some.

Well yes, I wouldn’t either but this isn’t the same - pidgin is a language, not a lazy way of speaking. For example, in Nigeria alone there are well over 500 languages- pidgin is a very practical solution to allow people to communicate. And I’m sure some people don’t care to read or listen to the BBC, just like plenty of people don’t here.

But the report I read above is practically English... it isn't a totally different language as we know them to be. I can't believe somebody that speaks pidgin wouldn't be able to read normal English. That's the issue people seem to be having with it, that it's a huge amount of money to spend translating something into something that's not much different.

No, that’s the point of a pidgin language: the vast majority of speakers of West African Pidgin speak it as a second language, and they don’t speak or read formal English. They wouldn’t recognise a lot of formal English words, phrases, idioms, and grammar structures. There are over 500 languages spoken in Nigeria alone, but many of those speakers will also speak Pidgin - so it’s easier, cheaper and more practical for the BBC World Service to broadcast print media in Pidgin than try to translate into 500 different languages.

It’s isn’t the same thing.

For broader global communication, a simplified subset of American English might be appropriate.

That’s a pretty patronising attitude.
But the rest of BBC news is there for them if they do want to read it in standard British English.

Your arrogance is astounding.
The way you do something isn't automatically the proper way. There is a whole world outside of white Britain.

There absolutely is a proper way to speak and write English. It is patronising to say otherwise.

You sound like an uneducated fool. I am Nigerian, born there actually but raised here. I am often told my English is better than most actual English people.I need to for my profession as a Surgeon. I also know how to speak pidgin English. A lot of Nigerians do and also speak their native tongue. You are exposing yourself by saying this.

There are many 'proper' ways, depending on context, location and of course time.

I work for a global scientific software company. The proper way for us to write English is, unsurprisingly, using American spellings and styles, unless there's some technical language where there's an international body which has defined a standard. So for instance, Aluminium and sulfur, not aluminum or sulphur. British idioms should be avoided, obviously.

If your English is better than better than most actual English people, and you also speak Pidgin, those are two different things. And when you speak English you are speaking proper English.

People who only speak Pidgin would not be able to become a surgeon.

Speaking as an editor of many years, no, there really isn't. Usage frequently changes and there are different Englishes according to country too. Indian English is different to British English, which is different to American English and so on. And keeping indigenous languages alive is incredibly important.

I just told you I speak Pidgin English, you must lack comprehension skills. Please go back to the rock you crawled from under as you keep exposing yourself- “actual English people”