The English of the Tanzanian President Magufuli

[Joshua Bukuru]

Thank you all viewers..!

For somehow to say something...about our President. You either defended or criticised the motion. I like people who discuss the substance of the motion and not provoking others. Generally speaking, president magufuli lacks huge english vocabularies. Both english speaking and pronunciation skills are simply bad.

In a poor country like Tanzania where its annual budget depends on donors by 40%, you can't keep learning Luo, lingala, kirundi, chagga and kiha hoping developed countries will understand you. The Danish people will never listen to you, The Swiss, Swedish and Chinese will never pay attention to your Swahili. By the way, even his Swahili is not ok. Just get to Ethiopia or Zambia, then you will know how ugly is the Swahili language in an international arena. Someone who speaks SwahiEnglish never has an ability to master both language. That's why he keeps diverting from Swahili to English and vice versa.

I see problems in his english grammar. Excellent english grammar is important because you quickly understand what people are saying, you fastly find correct form of what you want to say,you concentrate on pronunciation and ultimately you become fluency in the language and finally you feel confident about yourself and the issues you want to address.

I wonder the day he will meet David Cameroon, Barack Obama, Angela Merkel or EU president Donald Tusk what he will have to say. Learning is an ongoing process. Improving english speaking skills is key if you hold an office of the presidency. The more errors we make when talking to others, the worse it suggests that our education system is simply dead and buried. You can't make such dramatic errors like the President did last weekend and hoping people will keep quite.
Let's again discuss the substance of this motion...

Mr. Putin speaks excellent English. Mr. Jinping speaks wonderful english.But they stick to their national languages because the two countries are not poor like Tanzania. The poor will Always speak the languange of the master. Othewise be an independent country.

 

[Joshua Bukuru]

I have completely no personal conflict with the president. But, with his title as the president of Tanzania, everyone looks at him both domestically and internationally. I strongly criticised his level of spoken English and not his performance. The two things are absolutely different. Some have attacked me personally for raising up this motion, please argue and build up your point for further discussion.

We all know that Tanzania is a begging basket on planet earth. We're at the top, 3rd place after Afaghanistan and Irak. Always you beg in a language that your master understands. Even though there are good steps he took to boost domestic revenues and cut costs, yet we can't manage to fund our development programs using domestic resources. It will take us 6 to 7 years from now to be financially indipendent under the assumption that other factors remain constant. Donor funding is still needed in our economy.

English for poor countries is unescapable especially for the highest public servants. I don't have problems if he uses Swahili everywhere he goes whether at home or abroad. But I have troubles with his English grammar, articulation of words and fluency. Diverting from Swahili to English and vice versa suggests to me that our president masters non of the two languages. By the way, everything is written on the paper, why he shouldn't read as it is written? Just read...this is what we want from him.

Excuses like scientists don't have good English are simply wrong and i can't agree with you more. There are good scientists in the country that speak excellent English. For Magufuli, it is lack of enough vocabularies. Exercising or reading books is the only way to increase your vocabularies. Others will argue as a matter of fact that Tanzanians don't have a culture of reading... then, we should look at our education system, infrastructure, syllabuses and structures. There're must be something wrong somewhere...

There are few saying that Chinese & Russian presidents don't speak English, my question to you is that " are they poor and do they beg as we do Tanzanians"? Any country that has managed to build strong economy does not beg. Look at Singapore, South Korea,Malaysia, India & Vietnam. What makes Tanzanians mad is that we beg and abuse the funds. Non is accountable to anyone...

So, let us discuss the substance of the motion i.e. Magufuli's level of English and don't bring up your nonsense arguements that don't add up anything to our mind.

 

[Ndalama]

We got you, let us continue with other issues, although we are beggars but there is no specific begging language

 

[Mzee Mwanakijiji]

This is silly; if we were to look at this essay in itself; it is full of grammatical and structural errors; errors that are very common for non-native speakers of English. So, while you are criticising the President's English command, it is wise or wiser for you to look at your own mistakes; mistakes that many of us still commit when dealing with the so called the 'Qeen's tongue'.

 

[barafuyamoto]

Nonesense!
Utter garbage from a LITTERATE but UNEDUCATED individual!

 

[Mzee Mwanakijiji]

Unaweza vipi kumkosoa mtu kwa Kiingereza chake wakati unafanya makosa kama yake ukiamini unaandika Kiingereza sahihi?

I have completely no personal conflict with the president. But, with his title as the president of the Tanzania, everyone looks at him both domestically and internationally. I strongly criticised his level of spoken english and not his performance in the job. The two features are different. Some have attacked me personally for raising up this motion, please argue and build up your point for further discussion.

We all know that Tanzania is a begging basket on planet earth. We're at the bottom 3rd place after Afaghanistan and Irak. Always you beg in a language that your master understands. Even though there are good steps he took to boost domestic revenues and cut costs, yet we can't manage to fund our development programs using domestic resources. It will take us 6 to 7 years from now to be financially indipendent under the assumption that other factors remain constant. Donor funding is still needed in our economy.

English for poor countries is unescapable especially highest public servants. I don't have problems if he uses Swahili everywhere he goes whether at home or abroad. But I have troubles with his English grammar, articulation of words and fluency. Diverting from Swahili to English and vice versa suggests to me that our president masters non of the two languages. By the way, everything is written on the paper, why he shouldn't read as it written? Just read...is what we want from him.

Excuses like scientists don't have good English are simply wrong and i can't agree with you more. There are good scientists in the country that speak excellent English. For Magufuli, it is lack of enough vocabularies. Exercising and reading books is the only way to increase your vocabularies. Otherw will argue as a matter of fact that Tanzanians don't have a culture of reading... then, we should have a look at our education system, infrastructure, syllabuses and structures. There're must be something wrong somewhere...

There are few saying that even Chinese & Russian president don't speak English, my question to you is that " are they poor and do they beg as we do Tanzanians"? Any country that has managed to build strong economy does not beg. Look at Singapore, South Korea,Malaysia, India & Vietnam. What makes Tanzanians mad is that we beg and abuse the funds. Non is accountable to anyone...

So, let us discuss the substance of the motion i.e. Magufuli's level of English and don't bring up your nonsense arguements that don't add up anything to our mind.

Those are just of the few grammatical and structural errors that you have committed while trying to criticise the same on President Magufuli. Sasa wewe unajua Kiingereza kweli? Siyo kwamba sisi sote tunaojifunga hizi lugha za watu wakati mwingine tunafanya makosa ya hapa na pale? Hata watu wanaozungumza lugha hii wenyewe bado wanatakiwa kujifunga kama vile watu wanaozungumza Kiswahili wanavyojifunza lugha yao ili kuepuka makosa ya kawaida kwa wazungumzaji wa Kisawhili.

So your motion is hereby contested and summarily rejected.

 

[Nyani Ngabu]

This is silly; if we were to look at this essay in itself; it is full of grammatical and structural errors; errors that are very common for non-native speakers of English. So, while you are criticising the President's English command, it is wise or wiser for you to look at your own mistakes; mistakes that many of us still commit when dealing with the so called the 'Qeen's tongue'.

Queen's..

 

[Mzee Mwanakijiji]

Queen's..

Sasa si unaona hapo; halafu nakaa mkaa unaanza na Queen.. go figure.

 

[Eddy Love]

ANAZIDIWA HADI NA DIAMOND PLATENUM

 

[mayenga]

Yaani wewe mleta mada paragraph ya kwanza tu umekosea.-What a garbage!

 

[Phillipo Bukililo]

We don't care about our president's ability to speak international languages, mind you he is not Shakespeare and we the ones who voted for his presidency know the reality about his beginnings. We respect his dedication and commitment in bringing better lives to each and every Tanzanian more than the way he pronounces words of English language. I think of late, UKAWA supporters have been running out of important issues to talk about, that is why to them what is important is not how our president deals with deep problems of majority of Tanzania but his inability to speak exactly like David Cameron and other famous British personalities. UKAWA supporters are losing crediblity, they are no more the news material, so lambasting our president on the subject of English language is just another weak and inefficient political tool.

 

[Leonard Robert]

Kwakweli kingereza chake ni miserably poor

 

[Nyani Ngabu]

Sasa si unaona hapo; halafu nakaa mkaa unaanza na Queen.. go figure.

Ningekuwa mshauri wa Magufuli ningemwambia akipotezee tu hicho Kiingereza na atumie Kiswahili muda wote.

Kwa sababu, ukweli ni kwamba kinampa shida, hususan hicho cha kuongea.

Hakimudu vizuri.

Na kwa kadri atakavyokuwa anakitumia ndo gumzo nalo litakavyozidi kuendelea.

 

[Salary Slip]

Ni shiida huyu jamaa na English yake!

Watanzania,kwa ujumla wetu na yeye akiwa ndio mkuu wa nchi, tatizo hili inabidi tulichukulie kama "a familiy skeleton."

 

[M_kara]

Your English fluency is simply poor. Nyani halioni kundule, ingawa huna capacity ya kwenda kutuombea misaada huko unapo pajua wewe.

 

[Genghis Khans]

Mleta ajenda naona ww unalako jambo. English sio kigezo cha kuwa kiongozi nzuri na watanzania hawakumchagua JPM kwa sababu anajua kuongea sana kiswahili au English bali kwa ajili ya uchapakazi wake. Kama ww unajua lungha tano basi ni ww lakini ukija kwenye vitu vingine unaweza kuwa mtupu sana, naona hili kwa mada uliyoleta hapa.

 

[Nyani Ngabu]

Mleta ajenda naona ww unalako jambo. English sio kigezo cha kuwa kiongozi mnzuri

Mzuri.

na watanzania awakumchagua JPM kwa sababu anajua kuongea sana kiswahili au English bali kwa ajili ya uchapakazi wake.

Hawakumchagua

Kama ww unajua lungha tano basi ni ww lakini ukija kwenye vitu vingine unaweza kuwa mtupu sana, naona ili kwa mada uliyoleta hapa.

Lugha

ili = hili?

 

[dyuteromaikota]

That's cheap shot

 

[kasenene]

Bukuru@ A kenyan pretended to be a Tanzanian. I H have qn for you does fluent English matter when we talk of international relations or simply communication whereby two parties need to understandstand each other and reach consersus.Huyo Rais wenu wa Kenya ambaye ni fluent kwenye kiingirish kafanya nini mpaka leo. ..Fala saana wewe

 

[SaidAlly]

Mimi najiuliza peke yangu tena kwa sauti...

Huyu jamaa ni Dr. na kwa elimu yetu hapa bongo mpaka mtu anapata huo uDr lazima atakua amepitia ngazi tofauti tofauti za elimu, akisoma, kuandika na kuongea kwa kiingereza ndio maana akafanikiwa kuupata huo uDr.

Sasa hicho kiingereza alichotumia huko nyuma ktk masomo kimeenda wapi?

Au uDr wake ni wa kazawadiwa kama wale wengine?
sisifii kuongea kiingereza na kupuuza kiswahili hapana. ninachojiuliza .... kiingereza ni lugha ya kufundishia hapa kwetu na ili ufikie kiwango cha elimu ya muheshimiwa sana basi lazima utakua unajua kiingereza vizuri maana uDr si mchezo?!