According to English Proficiency index, 13 African countries speak better English than Ghana. The results were broadcasted in 2019 and may mean that our Ghanaian brand of English is not only bad, but worse than more than 13 other countries of the continent.
Most African countries are English speaking, and this is due to the fact that they were colonalized by the British whose primary language is English. As a result, the English language has become the official language of most African countries, including our country, Ghana.
Ghana, like most West African countries was colonized by the British. A little digging into history reveals that the southern regions of Ghana, which at that time was named Gold Coast, became a colony of the Great Britain in 1874. In 1901 the Ashanti region of Ghana also became a British colony, starting from January 1, 1902.
Although in 1957, the country, through the undeniable efforts of its founding fathers such as Kwame Nkrumah, became the first African country to gain independence from the British colonial rule, the many years under Britain had taken its toll on them and they had now adopted English as their official language. This meant that almost every transaction in Ghana was finished with English language.
Ever since the British incursion into Ghana, the Ghanaians have been English speakers. But recent statistics gotten from the EF English Proficiency Index, suggest that the Ghanaians may not be great speakers of the Colonial language as they were not included in the list of 13 African countries that are proficient in the language.
This is the list of top 13 African countries that are good English language speakers, according to EF English Proficiency Index:
Africa's Best English Speakers
1. South Africa (65.38)
2. Kenya (60.51)
3. Nigeria (58.26)
4. Ethiopia (49.64)
5. Tunisia (49.04)
6. Morocco (47.19)
7. Egypt (47.11)
8. Cameroon (46.28)
9. Sudan (45.94)
10. Algeria (45.28)
11. Angola (44.54)
12. Ivory Coast (42.41)
13. Libya (40.87)
The list shows that countries like South Africa, Kenya and our West African neighbor, Nigeria are better English speaking countries than Ghana.
Many persons who saw the list have wondered why Ghana is not at least in the top 10. They called the exclusion an oversight as according to them, the Ghanaians speak the best English across the continent.
However, other persons from other countries took the opportunity to make fun of Ghanaian English, and the fact that they were excluded from the list.
Content created and supplied by: Blog69 (via Opera News )
COMMENTS