Culture Shock; A Nigerian Abroad

I recently moved to England to go to university so I am now a member of the Nigerians abroad society. I call it a society because of the vast number of Nigerians abroad. As with anyone else, we face certain challenges when we get to this new country and I am going to highlight a few of them that I have experienced myself. I will be basing all this on England but I am certain Nigerian migrants in other countries will understand them.

• Money.

The utter shock you get when you enter a shop with your new fifty pound note and your money has to go through all types of inspection before you are rendered the services you wanted. During this time, you may be confident of the new crisp pounds your local aboki/mallam sold to you or you might be a little worried because you patronized another aboki and not your regular customer. Secondly, the constant need to convert money to your currency of choice; Naira. In the process of conversion you may refrain from buying a lot of things. I walked into a sainsbury shop and picked up a 50cl plastic bottle of coke only to realize it was £1.20. Of course the hidden mathematician in me came out and I converted it to Naira and figured it was almost 350 naira. As you would expect I dropped it back because in Nigeria it's only 100 naira.

• Language

People have different problems with language. The most common on is that the people of the country you are in do not understand your beautiful Nigerian accent. The number of times I have been stopped mid-conversation to be asked if I was still speaking English is absurd. This happens when I'm speaking to a fellow Nigerian really fast. The struggle to communicate to the natives of the country goes either way; they don't understand your accent or you don't understand theirs. This is where Nigerians try to put up this funny British accent and end up sounding ridiculous. I must say I have had to do so a couple of times. Contrary to popular belief, British people are not very good with English and their slang's and sentence construction may be hard for a Nigerian who was taught the "Queen's English" to understand. It took me a while to know that when a person asked "Where abouts do you stay?" he in fact meant where do you live.

• Weather

WINTER!!!! The biggest problem Nigerians have is the cold. Coming from a nation with a tropical climate to that with the four seasons takes a lot of adjustment. You can easily spot a Nigerian new to these harsh conditions as he has on so many layers and waddles up and down stuffed. I have fallen prey to this because I remember wearing two pairs of tights and about three layers of clothing before I put on my coat. Nna, my brother that cold is not easy. Ko easy.

• Dressing

Most Nigerians are conservative people and are often dumbfounded by the way some people dress. You know when you watched Osofia in London and the scene where he goes to put his coat over a girls legs, many people may have caught themselves in similar situations. The worst part is usually when you see an obese person in indecent clothing. Living abroad, England to be exact, you don't only see indecent things. No, you see all sorts, people dressed like vampires when it's not even Halloween, old mamas and papas in lingerie and boxers on the street. As a Nigerian I think, 'have you no shame'. But the British call it personal expression.

• PDA (Public Display of Affection)

In Nigeria public display of affection is frowned upon. You dare not kiss your boyfriend in the cinema or at the mall. Even a hug can sometimes be considered to much (e.g in church). But you arrive in England and it is everywhere. From kissing, to squeezing the bum and some other obscene things I can't write. I was on the bus the other day and this couple kept kissing each other and looking at each other like they wanted to cry. I was utterly irritated. Couldn't they have waited till they got home?

•  Speak Nigerian.

Being asked to speak Nigerian and having to explain that there is nothing like Nigerian. Also being asked why you and your Nigerian colleague do not speak the same language. At this point you would have to the explain the vast number of languages in Nigeria and the fact that you come from different parts of the country. Also the struggle for white people to understand that pidgin English is in fact derived from proper English. The scenarios on speaking Nigerian are endless.

So I have listed 6 things that Nigerians face when they get abroad. Many of these should be common where ever you may be. If you're a Nigerian abroad, have you faced these problems too?

Shindara Salako