Note taking: Nigeria vs the U.S.
February 22, 2011 by Cara Titilayo Harshman

My english teacher lecturing about Amos Tutuola's The Palm Wine Drinkard for English 444–African Prose Fiction.
I was sitting in English lecture the other day, looking around the room, taking in the entire scene. Students sitting more or less attentively in chipping wooden swivel seats propped up by long, thin wooden tables. Students in sorts of different outfits, some in native ankara fabrics, most in jeans and fancy tops with matching earrings and shoes. My English teacher’s usual slow and deliberate pace of explaining our topic of discussion, The Palm Wine Drinkard. I shifted my seat on the wooden bench, noticing beads of sweat forming on my forehead, wishing for a breeze to rustle through the open glass windows.
I noticed that one thing separated me from the rest of the students. No, it was not skin color. It was our notebooks. The notebooks had minor differences in the size, shape and line height, but the contents was what starkly differentiated mine from theirs. My page had a couple inches of white space on the left, a column of bullet points, roman numerals, letters, stars, what have you, and words filled the rest. Lines had different indents and some important words were underlined. My Nigerian mates had no white space on the left and no bullet points. Their notebooks were filled with paragraph after paragraph of full sentences that created an essay. I noticed that the students crammed on each side of me were writing down every word the professor said almost verbatim–well the important sentences anyway– instead of rephrasing it in their own words in shorter form.

My mate's notebook in English class. Filled with pages of paragraphs of notes, very different from how I take notes in the U.S.
I asked my friend in my Development Communication class if she learned to take notes by writing down everything the lecturer said. She said the fact is they did not learn to take notes like that but people use that method because of the essay based test format. Also, the lecturer might be dictating directly from his notes, and in that case the students want to get as much information as possible. Also, reading supplements for classes can be difficult or impossible to find sometimes. Many of the books I’m reading in English class-African prose fiction-are not sold at the UI bookstore so it is sometimes in the students’ best interest to capture as many of the professor’s exact words as they can.
Sometimes I feel like a slacker with my bulleted lists and roman numerals. Should I be writing three page essays like my peers every class? Nah, I think I’d rather save ink and prevent severe hand aches.
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Takes me back to my days in Secondary school and college in Naija. Far cry from college in the states, one thing is for sure college stateside was easier as a result of initial Naija education, less note taking and more highlighting 🙂
But to be serious taking notes verbatim in Naija is inbred as a result of teachers who
1. Expect you to on a test write back to them their own words to get a perfect score
2. lack of textbooks, not all students can afford them
3. Those lectures where the instructor simply writes on board and like adeola stated would erase from start once at the end. God help you if you can’t keep up LOL
But with age in Naija people find their niche i know that not everyone in class takes notes in Naija as there are some enterprising chaps that take excellent notes not solely just to ace the course but for resale as well
Worst case pay to borrow some notes and photocopy in mass. Yep only did a year of college in LAG but resorted to that as well on occasion, with classrooms overcrowded and an inability to sometimes see the board or fully take in the lecture it was the only alternative
Hahahhahahahahahhhaha. I felt lost when I moved to the US and was trying to write words for words.lol. No 1, ma instructors were too fast for me, because I couldn’t hear most of the things said, because of oyinbo!lol. So, I saved myself d headache of been fustrated I started writing key things needed and also got a voice recorded! Leyin gbogbo wahala, ini mi pada dun ni igbeyin. IRE O
I was considered a really serious student and I never used to take such lengthy notes. Bullet points, if any, were more my thing. But my reasons were that I was just LAZY. I usually had to make up for it by reading textbooks lol
Dear Cara,
Bawo ni! I hope that you are well. I’m based in the U.S. and I came across your website – Quick question for you though: I read your piece on when you ate lizard stew….I was just curious to know what city in Nigeria were you exactly when you ate the lizard stew? If you could please specify then that would be great for me, thanks:)
Enjoy the rest of your stay in Naija!
Jide
We killed it and ate it in Ibadan, UI to be exact.
I do agree with you TI, its weird y pple like writing in such format. i also jst prefer noting & highlighting d major things that r said in class. not to fill my note with junk that makes reading a whole lot cramped.
But i do enjoy ur blogs.i jst got to know it & i’d say its good.keep it up.
Your yoruba i dare say is hillarious!!!. some words u used, i don’t even use them..Deep sister..deep.but its good though..
lol…your so right…i jus realized i musta written a whole text book in my uni days in nigeria…
Hi Titi,
Yeah, that’s it in Nigeria, you get to write all your notes…miss any part of the story, then you will have to improvise by taking notes from your mates, who sometimes get the missing links. Funny, isn’t?
Well, I have seen a few videos and I’m impressed, please keep it up. Your doing real good…
Hey Titi! i am in love with your blog, its amazing what you are doing and i hope you are able to get the most of what Nigeria has to offer!
i agree with the difference in notetaking skills in Nigeria, and believe it is bad, i studied in Nigeria for me primary to secondary school! In Nigeria, teachers expect you to intake everything they say and you can’t blame students cause exams are mostly based on things they have said. they believe education is based solely on knowledge. This proved problematic for me as i have a lazy hand and couldn’t copy up that much and i tend to fail.However coming to the Uk for my A levels and University, one notices the difference, as you are not tested on knowledge alone but the application of knowledge, which obviously what you were doing in synthesising what the lecturer had said, in your bullet points.
I am lucky that i was able to adapt, it is a problem cause students in nigeria just cram textbook after textbook, and most might not be able to give their own opinion on the viewpoint!
well Nigeria as a country in a whole, has so much to learn, my prayer is that sooner than later, we get there!
i had a Ghanian teacher then in high school, he does not give notes all during classes, and the last Saturday before end of term, he will ask all student to come to school, and he starts writing his on the black board, one class after another, you are domed if you do not get to school on time, because when all the classes school board are all finished, he goes back to his starting point rub it all off and continue from that point.
haha!!! loooool
LOL! I remember taking notes in high school and telling my professor to repeat his sentences by saying “Excuse me sir, I am lost”. Guess what? The response was usually “get it from your friends” or “you need extra coaching”- that is on how to take notes properly. Oh lol, I just find giving out study notes for students to fill out easier. 😀
This is one of the most problematic parts of Nigerian University culture. Professors spend too much time dictating rather than allow students to read the materials themselves. This puts students in such a silly state as trying to get everything down, and thus lose out in the interesting gist of the lecture itself.
PS: This is not a general trend. It’s specific to some types of professors, many of who will change the method if you asked them to.
How interesting that something such as note taking is so different in another culture.
Hugs,
Me
LOL. so much difference from us and the West. I think our culture takes a lot of things too serious.