Hey Students,
Are you ready for school????
We are in September! September means books, pens, classmates, uniforms, ewwww homework!!!
Did you know that France education system came 27th place in the global education rankings???
Oh la la…should France start looking abroad for inspiration? Biko, my fellow Nigerians, what is our own global ranking ??
Should we start checking from 55th??
When is the right time to leave? Is there ever a time to leave? It’s often said that the best time to leave is when the ovation is the loudest.
What happens when we feel the ovation is not yet loud? What happens when you keep telling yourself, “just try one more time”. What do you do while waiting for the loud ovation to kick off?
How many of us still nurse dreams of eons ago? Oh no, reality hit and we forgot to dream rather we fell into a rut or do I call it the rat race? Then we start the same cycle of having a dream, never bold enough to bring it to reality, fall into set expectations as given by folks and our environment and just forget to follow the stars… ergo dream
Guess this is a rant of sorts… or maybe the world around me is going crazy and I am trying not to lose me in the noise or maybe I just want to strike out and stay unique.
Have you ever felt like you are in one place? Like you are running in a maze or perhaps chasing your tail?
Oh well, maybe you got it all figured out…
Believe me, if you haven’t got the money to travel to some exotic country, you no longer have to read a book to get there. Why, you are now a click-away!
I love to visit blogs because I see them as windows to the unknown. It is another form of learning for me. When I visit these sites, my horizons are broadened and perspective sharpened.
I went through past posts and discovered that I had re-blogged back to back 4 to 5 times. Is this good? has my reason for re-blogging changed? or am I being lazy on research?
I came across a blog whose owner had re-blogged consistently for almost all the blog’s existence. Is that even healthy? Well, You could say, it is their way of achieving relevance or attention. Since they even informed before re-blogging.
Why do people even re-blog? I re-blogged because I wanted to spread awareness on a particular issue, And then I re-blogged because I wanted to emphasize on the french content. And then, I re-blogged because that was my own way of saving that impressionable post.
Question?? What birthed this blog? Is this blog different? bland? or unique?? That is answer that only the writers and audience can respond to.
I hereby pledge to blog, re-blog informative, relevant and educative posts and never re-blog because I feel lazy to go original!
A popular saying – when life gives you limes, you make lemonade.
This has been the case for the past 3months. You realize that whether you are hungry or full, the sun still shines and the rains still fall.
When you think that you are strong, Life throws you a curve. And you either halt or take a turn or retrogress.
What did I do? I removed my 6-inch heels and put on my flat shoes. And walked the talk. I am not there yet, but I am still moving. A quarter of 2017 is rolling away, and never to come back, I just look at myself in the mirror and say, It ain’t over yet. I still have 3 more quarters to go. My colleagues moan how broke and tired they are. I smile and tell them, at least you are alive to moan. Me, I just carry this smile that doesn’t reach my eyes and move on with life.
In this first quarter, I learned how to prioritize. Compromise took a new level. Yeah, nobody said Life is Fair. And I am a wiser person.
Dear patient readers, what has the first quarter of 2017 taught you? Did you, like me learn to talk less and think outside the box? Did you feel like you running in a maze with no end? and Did you feel like a zombie, wake up by 4am, catch a ride to work by 5am, work like a drone bee till 5 or even 7pm, get stuck in traffic for another 2- 3 hours depending on where you call home, get home late and conk out! sleep or laze through the weekend?
Congratulations! you survived! Now, go kick some ass in April!
image culled from google
Hahahahaaaa… she kept laughing like an old drunk filled with fresh palm wine. Naa, she’s drunk on happiness. She suddenly stops her laughter and looks around her self consciously. “Who cares?” she says aloud. “I have hope! and I will keep it alive!!” People looked at her, some wondering if she was consoling herself in the face of the MMM freeze. Or maybe, she had just received a prophecy of riches from some prophets.
My Dear People,
She is just happy. Grateful for second chances, better days ahead and milestones to be surpassed. Yes! 2017 is new and irregardless of the economic situation, She is determined to overcome and reach for the skies.
Some people wrote down their new year plans/ goals/ resolutions; some didn’t even bother. What’s the use? After a while, the whole excitement of a new year fizzle out. I believe that we are each responsible for the way we react to situations in life. The way we react determines how we respond to life.
While trolling the world wide web today, I came across this image below from briantracy.com, I love it and that’s my 2cents to the lady above, to myself and to you.
Case Closed!
It’s almost time for the Christmas Holidays. So, dollars is hard to come by, Nigeria is “in recession”. Not sure, if you can afford traveling to USA/UK/Canada etc. for the holidays?
Relax, you are covered. A beautiful fact is that you don’t need a visa to visit any of these countries. For those residing in Nigeria, you have no need for visa, just ensure that your yellow card is up to date and your passport is valid. For residents outside Nigeria, please check the embassy websites of these countries.
You can choose to drive or fly to your choice country. Personally, I would recommend driving to Togo & Benin especially if you are coming from Nigeria. Just enjoy the road trip. Downside – You will be pleasantly tired.
It’s also an opportunity for newbie french speakers to practice the french language and be immersed in the french culture at first hand. Don’t worry, If you are a Nigerian, you are very resilient to culture shock.
So why these 5?
These countries have different effects on me. Let’s go down memory lane.
One of the main attraction to these countries is the food. I can’t get over the cheapness of food. For those that want to maintain their weight, they can always do that. These french countries have a huge appetite for all things salads/chicken/fish. And can they eat? Gosh! A 3-course meal for lunch and you can’t understand how they are able to still have space for dinner.
As for the chilling life, their towns come to life at night. So for the party folks and wine connoisseurs, you will enjoy this to the fullest.
For those with the eye of an entrepreneur, just have enough of money with you and a native guide, you will get very good prices for excellent fabrics, bags, shoes, whatever catches your business eye.
*Sorry, I don’t have pictures because my laptop crashed and I had no backup. Lesson learnt.
Ping back to Greetings! and The Francophone Christmas for a bit of more background information.
I can’t believe this! US folks taking to the street because they got a different Buhari? No wonder, Nigerians are seen as suffering and smile people.
What should Nigerians do? When you face Sagamu to link Ibadan, and avoid the usual Lagos-Ibadan expressway traffic, and all you see is bad bad road. You just find yourself praying with your heart in your throat. Do you know that coaster biscuit sold for N5 is now N10? and the biscuits has reduced from 6 to 4 inside a pack! Gala has tried in maintaining their N50 price but the sausage is almost extinct.
These oyibo people sef. They have good amenities, light is constant, road is fine, you can even lie on the road sef, food is cheap and they are here on TV disturbing my ears with … *not my president* *not my president*.. mschewwww
What’s my own sef? The only people that know me are my friends, family, loved ones, colleagues… so I cannot come and carry headache for nobody because my office people will soon join this argument of Hillary vs Trump.
In other news, Linda Ikeji Social! That babe brain be working overdrive. She sha wan collect media phenomenal for 2016. For those that have signed up, tell us your experience with the site. *Side eyes* at Adaezenwa
Back to my noisy colleagues and background noise on Trump/Hillary.
Recently on cybersphere in Nigeria, the picture above went viral. What further pushed its popularity was the reaction of some of the speakers and the public at large. It got me speculative.
How one person can affect other people. Because Olarenwaju Idris aka ‘Bobrisky’ was supposed to be on the panel, two of the speakers sent withdrawal notification to the organizers. Once again, My think tank is almost sent to overdrive.Both of them (Bashir Ahmad & Subomi Plumptre) had their reputation, organization to protect. They didn’t want to be associated to a personality whose value system is different from theirs.
When you throw a stone into a body of water, you see the ripples that stone causes. I call it the ripple effect. And I grow introspective here. Am I doing something that may seem harmless to just me but eventually affects those within my circle? Am I saying something that when repeated to somebody else, a wrong meaning could be read?
I remember what the average Nigerian parents will always tell their child(ren) while growing up – “remember, where you are coming from”… “remember the child of who you are”…
As culled from google, “Influence is the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.”
Does the word loyalty exist?
I see people stay in an organization for 5, 10, 25 years and retire. And I see some stay 1.5, 2, 3 years before they switch jobs.
What drives you? The salary at the end of the month or desire to see the organization flourish? Or are you stuck in the maze?
What do you think?
Transcreation is the process of adapting a message from one language to another, while maintaining its intent, style, tone and context. A successfully transcreated message evokes the same emotions and carries the same implications in the target language as it does in the source language.
I am a Nigerian by birth, a native english speaker. French is my second language. It just turns out that I am also a translator of the said languages. Why am I writing all this. Because, I am at that phase where I need to move out of hiding, explore and let the world know what I have been and still doing.
2016 is an awesome year. I mentioned in my last post Sneak Peek, there has been a revolution in the writing sphere. I am glad, writers are beginning to put value to their passion, we are seeing innovation all around. A lot of us especially the young are thinking out of the box and changing the traditional mode of doing things. The social media has become our market place and information hub.
It took me a while to acknowledge to myself that the world is changing, the way of doing things also changing. We need to move with the change so we don’t become obsolete.
We are fast approaching the 4th quarter of 2016. In the past three quarters, we have survived the tomatoes scarcity, fuel hike, unpaid government salaries, poor electricity, approx. 40% hike in cost of goods and services etc. 
What activity will you be turning into a skill? What of your mindset? Or you want to start a #pityparty
Bilingual-Moi! 