More recently, Nigeria boasts an unusual amount of Scrabble champions; is Nigeria actually bursting with unrealized potential? Probably not, because they don’t dominate any other competitive game such as chess or checkers or poker, or intellectual pursuits in general, and Nigerian Scrabble seems to be path-dependence leading to specialization; you can easily win the annual per capita income of Nigeria at Scrabble tournaments, and there is now a self-sustaining Scrabble community telling you it’s a doable career and providing an entryway.
It might not just be specialization on Scrabble. English is the official language in Nigeria. I think it’s plausible that Nigerian elite English education focuses more strongly on learning a lot of words then US English education.
There are many countries besides Nigeria where English is an official language, elite language, or widely taught. And language proficiency apparently has little to do with Scrabble success at pro levels where success depends on memorizing an obsolete dictionary’s words (apparently even including not really-real words, to the point where I believe someone won the French Scrabble world championship or something without knowing any French beyond the memorized dictionary words).
It might not just be specialization on Scrabble. English is the official language in Nigeria. I think it’s plausible that Nigerian elite English education focuses more strongly on learning a lot of words then US English education.
There are many countries besides Nigeria where English is an official language, elite language, or widely taught. And language proficiency apparently has little to do with Scrabble success at pro levels where success depends on memorizing an obsolete dictionary’s words (apparently even including not really-real words, to the point where I believe someone won the French Scrabble world championship or something without knowing any French beyond the memorized dictionary words).