My recent blogging inactivity did not keep me away from English – fortunately or unfortunately. Instead, what I lacked in English writing was compensated by a couple of reasons or chances that compelled me to speak the language which I always thought has been my forte. But, I was wrong. I once again realized that English is still indeed foreign to my tongue.
When I was in grade school, I was among those who would rather speak than compute (if I can avoid it). I was always more comfortable filling in pages after pages of theme writing compositions than competing with someone else in the mathematical flash cards race. I did well in English than math. In short, I just love words over numbers.
It wasn’t surprising then when I jumped into the blogging bandwagon right after I got hold of my own internet connection at home. I dumped my pens. I forgot all about my paper journals – I’d rather type. And although, I rate myself as among those considered average in terms of English skills (grammar and composition, specifically), it didn’t deter me to post my entries in my so called online vandalism – or blogs. Practice, practice, practice is what always goes on inside my mind whenever writing frustration sinks in.
So just imagine how excited I was when I found a couple of perfect excuses to speak English. First, our son’s arrival meant that my much awaited time to teach English to someone came. And I find it funny that while he’s learning the basics – alphabet, words, and vowels, I on my part am silently relearning most of it. I correct myself every time I pronounced a word wrong – I should be able to perfect it when our son is old enough. Second, l attended a training last week wherein our instructor was Tenora – a black American with a doctorate degree. Obviously in this training, the activities and interaction were all done using English as the medium of communication.
Other than learning how to become a good manager by using the Symphony/Conductor metaphor, I also began to make a conscious effort to get my message across by trying to speak up every time I had the chance. And just as I was persecuting myself for the mispronunciations I regularly had, I was quite surprised when at one point Tenora had to write something on the flip chart and she seem to have seconds of doubt whether she’s spelling the word right. Sensing that some of us might be looking at her, she admitted that often times she’d falter when it comes to writing. She even joked that someone once said, “Only a wise person spells one word in different ways.” She’s not sure if it was from Thomas Jefferson. Whoever it was, at that point, I was smiling. Nodding. Well, I can’t be that bad then.
***
One of the newspaper clippings I keep until now is a poem which Philstar’s Mary Ann Quioc Tayag posted on her February 13, 2005 article: So what if my English sounds funny? This one is like a year of speech class compressed in one tiny clipping. Here it is:
Hints on pronunciation for foreigners (by TSW)
I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through?
Well done! And now you wish perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead: it’s said like bed, not bead
For goodness sake don’t call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.
A moth is not a moth in mother
Nor both in bother, broth in brother
And here is not match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear
And then there’s dose and rose and lose
Just look them up – - and goose and choose
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword
And do and go and thwart and cart
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive,
I’d mastered it when I was five.
***
And here’s a hilarious poem I found while searching related topics:
I have a spelling checker
It came with my PC
It plainly marks for my revue
Mistakes I cannot sea
I’ve run this poem threw it
I’m sure your please to no,
It’s letter perfect in it’s weigh
My checker tolled me sew
– anonymous
(from: http://www.etni.org.il/quotes/spelling.htm)
***
Oh by the way, I also tried searching for Thomas Jefferson’s quote related to spelling and what I find is completely opposite to what Tenora mentioned:
“Take care that you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word, consider how it is spelled, and, if you do not remember, turn to a dictionary. It produces great praise to a lady to spell well.” – Thomas Jefferson, to his daughter Martha.
(from: http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_spelling.html)
Well, that’s English folks. It’s still indeed as alien as we’d like to think of it.
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Mood: 3/10 Honks!
(wife and baby sleeping)
