Ax vs Ask

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My gosh, there are some really uptight people posting here. And some of it borders on racist, although I can't tell if they are serious all of the time or just being provocative.

Who cares if your child has a teacher that uses ax? Really.

Agree!!!

[Anonymous]

I'm personally quietly amused that my 5 year old now says "scoo" and "coo," not "school" and "cool." He picks up on accents and mimics whoever he's around. When he was in bilingual Spanish / English daycare, he used to go around singing "Jeengle Bells, Jeengle Bells, Jeengle all da wayyyyy," just like his El Salvadorian music teacher. I think language is pretty fluid and I don't worry about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My gosh, there are some really uptight people posting here. And some of it borders on racist, although I can't tell if they are serious all of the time or just being provocative.

Who cares if your child has a teacher that uses ax? Really.

Personally, I think folks who casually throw around the charge of racism as if it were a verbal tic are worse than Hitler.

No? Okay, how about this then: if you want to throw a charge of racism out, it has to be based on more than your mulish irritation with those who take an opposing position from the one you'd prefer. You have to, you know, make an argument and stuff. Otherwise, you're like the Tebagging idiot who compares Obamacare to the Holocaust. In other words, it's a pathetic cheapshot.

Oh as if you are any better. You may actually be worst. Hitler. For real

[Anonymous]

I don't care whether the teacher is white, Black, or Asian, I would still insist that the teacher speak correct English IN THE CLASSROOM. For children who grow up in families that have parents who speak proper English, this isn't going to present much of an issue. But for the other children, school is the only opportunity for them to learn both proper pronunciation (and grammar).

I grew up in a home where both of my parents were immigrants from Asia. Neither of them to this day speaks grammatically correct English. If it weren't for my excellent teachers, I don't think that I would have been able to attend the college and graduate school I eventually attended.

All the well-meaning, but poorly guided liberals out there think that in the name of diversity we should respect AAVE don't have the well-being of disadvantaged children in mind. They are not going to succeed if their teachers don't teach them the mannerisms and speech of the professional world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Who cares if your child has a teacher that uses ax? Really.

No teacher is ever using an ax on my child. What is this, a slasher flick?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm AA and "ax" is one of my pet peeves. It really irritates me and suposedly educated people should know better. But I'm a stickler for good diction and grammar. Which is why my kids are now in private school.

I bet there's no educated parent here, regardless of ethnicity, who would want their kid to continue saying ax once they left that teacher.

To me that says that people know ax is wrong and uneducated. Personally I think if you care about that teacher and her future students, you'll get the word to her that ax is wrong.

I'm not a linguist, but I think she could be trained to make the change - and would want to - for the sake of the children.

there are a couple of common words that are difficult for me to pronounce properly - nothing regional - just me - and I've found ways to deal with it that make me more understandable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My gosh, there are some really uptight people posting here. And some of it borders on racist, although I can't tell if they are serious all of the time or just being provocative.

Who cares if your child has a teacher that uses ax? Really.

Personally, I think folks who casually throw around the charge of racism as if it were a verbal tic are worse than Hitler.

I'm not the PP you quoted, but some of the posts in here really are tinged with racism. I think for the racist posts are by people being intentionally rude, and not people who are positively contributing to either side of the discussion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My gosh, there are some really uptight people posting here. And some of it borders on racist, although I can't tell if they are serious all of the time or just being provocative.

Who cares if your child has a teacher that uses ax? Really.

Personally, I think folks who casually throw around the charge of racism as if it were a verbal tic are worse than Hitler.

I'm not the PP you quoted, but some of the posts in here really are tinged with racism. I think for the racist posts are by people being intentionally rude, and not people who are positively contributing to either side of the discussion.

"tinged with racism" is a cop-out. Quotes please. Unless "racism" is some new form of "disagrees with me."

[Anonymous]

If you've read the entire discussion and you don't see the few (notice I said a few, not "anyone who disagrees with me") off-the-wall posts that are obviously meant to be offensive, me quoting the posts won't change your mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you've read the entire discussion and you don't see the few (notice I said a few, not "anyone who disagrees with me") off-the-wall posts that are obviously meant to be offensive, me quoting the posts won't change your mind.

Wow. I would've thought you could have quoted at least one instance. Carry on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm defending AAVE from a linguistics standpoint- it is a legitimate dialect with rules and consistent grammar structures. If you deny that, you're doing the opposite of proving that you're educated.

I don't speak AAVE, so this isn't a personal argument for me. DCUM is just where I get my kicks.

Right. I'm not really sure why folks get so incensed over the idea that AAVE is a legitimate dialect from a linguistics standpoint. That's really a side issue anyway. I mean, cut-offs and a Billy Ray Cyrus t-shirt are perfectly legitimate clothing choices. It's just that you'll never get a job doing anything but manual labor if that's what you wear all the time. And school is where we send our children to be taught appropriate social behavior.

I don't care if you talk like Mater from Cars, or Flava Flav from Public Enemy--unless you're an educator and an authority figure. Then I care.

Yeah, I think this discussion has mostly morphed into what is accepted as a legitimate dialect and what's not.

I am defending AAVE because it is a legitimate dialect, not because I want my child's teacher speaking anything other than standard American English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you've read the entire discussion and you don't see the few (notice I said a few, not "anyone who disagrees with me") off-the-wall posts that are obviously meant to be offensive, me quoting the posts won't change your mind.

Wow. I would've thought you could have quoted at least one instance. Carry on.

You seem to have time on your hands, so let me ax you this- why don't you read through the thread yourself?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:quote]

On a mildly related note: one of my neighbor's children--who is a 3-year-old with a short crew-cut--picked up one of his daycare workers' habit of patting himself on the top of his head when it itches--presumably to avoid messing up his "weave".

Now *that's* funny!

This is hysterical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My gosh, there are some really uptight people posting here. And some of it borders on racist, although I can't tell if they are serious all of the time or just being provocative.

Who cares if your child has a teacher that uses ax? Really.

Personally, I think folks who casually throw around the charge of racism as if it were a verbal tic are worse than Hitler.

No? Okay, how about this then: if you want to throw a charge of racism out, it has to be based on more than your mulish irritation with those who take an opposing position from the one you'd prefer. You have to, you know, make an argument and stuff. Otherwise, you're like the Tebagging idiot who compares Obamacare to the Holocaust. In other words, it's a pathetic cheapshot.

The argument, 'n-stuff, has been made over and over on this thread -- that mispronounced word is acceptable from a New England WASP but not from an african american teacher.

There are many examples of 'front of the house' vs. 'back of the house' language differences -- like Gaelic (I love how Liam is a trendy name among people who don't want their kids taught by someone who says 'ax') and if you cared that many AA come to this area because DC has been an historically black city, you might have more appreciation for using a word like 'ax' in a classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm AA and "ax" is one of my pet peeves. It really irritates me and suposedly educated people should know better. But I'm a stickler for good diction and grammar. Which is why my kids are now in private school.

I bet there's no educated parent here, regardless of ethnicity, who would want their kid to continue saying ax once they left that teacher.

To me that says that people know ax is wrong and uneducated. Personally I think if you care about that teacher and her future students, you'll get the word to her that ax is wrong.

I'm not a linguist, but I think she could be trained to make the change - and would want to - for the sake of the children.

there are a couple of common words that are difficult for me to pronounce properly - nothing regional - just me - and I've found ways to deal with it that make me more understandable

What are the ways you deal with it?