You’re deflecting.

If a word is commonly used in a specific group, then it most certainly is not considered complicated to them. That’s the point!

Expecting immigrants to restrict their use of language to only what is commonplace in the US is discriminatory.

Do you get it now?

No lies detected!
I had to tweet-shout this because my brother is getting called out for using ChatGPT in assignments at postgrad level as we speak. Just days ago he had to write a paragraph on the spot in class (on a question asked by the lecturer) and the AI detector still…

A word you used only yesterday? The way people perform on this app is crazy.

But it's Africans that should provide proof of English when we grew up on casual words from our parents like Gallivanting, Scallywag, Lackadaisical, Perambulating and Hullabaloo

For context, 33 of the current top 100 Scrabble players in the world according to the official WESPA Scrabble ratings are Nigerians.

What twitter is teaching me today is that I need to water down my vocabulary in order to prove that I’m not a robot.

Eeya. Pele. I will continue to delve into topics that intrigue me using verbiage that I deem ideal to demystify any ambiguity concerning my intent.

Beyond the laughs, what Paul Graham did and doubled down on is dangerous and colonial. Any of us were flogged for using vernacular in school. We are treated with suspicion when we travel to the west, made to prove our knowledge many times over. Our knowledge is doubted, belittled

Delve was always going to come across as linguistic rodomontade to them that codified the of use fall instead of autumn and comforter instead of duvet.

You'll be getting rejection mails and doubting yourself, you won't know it's one olodo that is reviewing your applications...smh

American: I give up

Nigerian: Posterity will have it that I tried

We are not the same.

I HAD TO WATER DOWN THE WRITING IN MY THESIS SO THE AI DETECTOR WOULD STOP FLAGGING MY WORK.
I swear I am not making this up 😭
This conversation is so triggering I had to tweet in caps.

The saddest part is that it's people like this, who possess such a limited vocabulary, that get to review several job applications.

Imagine being at the mercy of an individual who attributes everyday English text to Artificial Intelligence.

This is why we need to invest more in producing and publishing our own work. Imagine after being force-fed colonial languages, being forced to speak it better than its owners then being told that no one used basic words like 'delve' in real life.

Habibi, come to Nigeria.

This ChatGPT conversation reminds me of when Ifemelu calls home after landing in the US in Adichie’s ‘Americanah’ to say that Americans can’t speak English

Paul Graham’s tweets today highlight the implicit bias foreign students face a lot with white teachers and professors. They already think you’re cheating half the time just cos you’re smart, now you’ll say ‘delve’ and ‘unlock’ and they will say you’re using chatGPT to write.

The most exciting thing about Nigerian English is not even our love of big words. We invent and reinvent words. Like how do you explain ‘razz’, ‘normal level’, ‘one kind’, ‘format’, ‘jazz’ to a non-Nigerian?

I can’t forget how one of my essays during my Master’s degree was marked down claiming that “my essay was too grammatically correct for an international student.” I was so annoyed and wrote a lengthy response to the Academic Review team and they had to start apologising.

I’m getting cooked in the QT’s and I’m here for it 🤣.

Eyes now opened to a new perspective on English outside of North America/England.

Ironic that I’ve become so sloppy in my own speak that AI’s overuse of elegant words is now suss.

Thank you Nigerian Twitter ❤️🙏🏾

I say 'delve' in every day conversations. Hand me a Pulitzer Prize then

Kindly delve into this