A teacher who pronounces library as "liberry"

[Anonymous]

Liberry drives me nuts, too, but I wk der how many of these same complainers pronounce the first R in February or say mis-chee-vee-ous or use flinder when they mean founder.

Ain't nobody perfect.

[Anonymous]

Better than teachers who don’t know the difference between then and then or led and lead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Better than teachers who don’t know the difference between then and then or led and lead.

Huh ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Better than teachers who don’t know the difference between then and then or led and lead.

Huh ?

There are so many poorly educated people on DCUM. If we have to explain it, you wouldn't understand anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Better than teachers who don’t know the difference between then and then or led and lead.

Huh ?

There are so many poorly educated people on DCUM. If we have to explain it, you wouldn't understand anyway.

+1

Unfortunately, a lot of poorly educated teacher’s too…thus the issue being discussed.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in a household with many words being mispronounced and with a Southern accent. I've tried to use correct pronunciations and minimize my accent, but even as an educated 50+ person I know I often slip up. I appreciate the posts acknowledging that this can happen. I don't feel so bad.

[Anonymous]

Why would you care, OP? It has no bearing on her ability to teach your children.

Personally, I love the regional accents of the US and hope that we don't lose them as we move to a broader standardization of American English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in a household with many words being mispronounced and with a Southern accent. I've tried to use correct pronunciations and minimize my accent, but even as an educated 50+ person I know I often slip up. I appreciate the posts acknowledging that this can happen. I don't feel so bad.

Same. I mostly don't have non-standard pronunciations (other than a typical Southern pin/pen merger), but I do know my accent's non-standard emphasis on certain first syllables (THANKS-giving, TEE-vee, UM-brella) drives some people crazy, so I try to be understanding with the lieberries and supposablies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Regional dialects are one of the beautiful things about our vast nation. I’ve loved living all over and traveling to places where I could enjoy the local way of speaking one of our primary shared languages. There are many words that are commonly mispronounced despite the speaker knowing the proper spelling and pronunciation. It’s a kind of colloquialism.

If the teacher spelled it ‘liberry,’ then I might be concerned. Being concerned about a widespread misusage that is colloquially used in most of the country is very anal retentive.

And understanding this is so important!

I had a coworker who called a buffet a buff-it. I wanted to correct her each time but I was a new, junior employee and she was a senior employee. I had worked there for maybe 6-8 months when we had a client meeting. The head of their team turned out to be someone who was raised in the southern town next to my coworker. He also pronounced buffet as buff-it.

I was telling my mom about this and she reminded me that we had relatives in WV who live in Hurricane, WV. That is not pronounced like the word hurricane at all. They all pronounce it hur-a-kin.

Same with Houston St. in NYC. It would be Hew-ston like Houston, TX to most of the population outside of NYC. Only those living there or who had visited before know it's pronounced How-ston.

A different pronunciation doesn't mean a lower IQ. -Something my mom reminded me that I have passed along to my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Better than teachers who don’t know the difference between then and then or led and lead.

Huh ?

I think there’s a typo and they meant then and than.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP this is a true story.

I can still remember in vivid detail when I was in early ES and my dad made fun of one of my teachers because she called a wreath a “reef.” He also made comments about her education and intelligence.

I didn’t have the framework to understand the racism and classism involved, but I knew my dad was looking down on a person I loved and respected in a way that didn’t seem fair.

I still remember this and I’m 40. It honestly still makes me think less of my dad. I love him and forgive him all his flaws, but this episode sticks in my mind. And I am perfectly capable of pronouncing “wreath” correctly.

So maybe there are more important things to think about here than the pronunciation of “library.”

Thanks for sharing that story -- it resonates with me, especially what you wrote about understanding that your dad was looking down on your teacher even though you didn't have the vocabulary to explain why. Kids pick up on these cues...

As another poster said, we need to treat each other with a little grace. And yes, there are more important things to think about than a mispronounced word, whether it's liberry, reef, or nucular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's like nails on a chalkboard. Now the kids are saying it.

Ok, or not?

I wish I had your life where this is your biggest problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Better than teachers who don’t know the difference between then and then or led and lead.

Huh ?

There are so many poorly educated people on DCUM. If we have to explain it, you wouldn't understand anyway.

+1

Unfortunately, a lot of poorly educated teacher’s too…thus the issue being discussed.

Teacher's?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regional dialects are one of the beautiful things about our vast nation. I’ve loved living all over and traveling to places where I could enjoy the local way of speaking one of our primary shared languages. There are many words that are commonly mispronounced despite the speaker knowing the proper spelling and pronunciation. It’s a kind of colloquialism.

If the teacher spelled it ‘liberry,’ then I might be concerned. Being concerned about a widespread misusage that is colloquially used in most of the country is very anal retentive.

And understanding this is so important!

I had a coworker who called a buffet a buff-it. I wanted to correct her each time but I was a new, junior employee and she was a senior employee. I had worked there for maybe 6-8 months when we had a client meeting. The head of their team turned out to be someone who was raised in the southern town next to my coworker. He also pronounced buffet as buff-it.

I was telling my mom about this and she reminded me that we had relatives in WV who live in Hurricane, WV. That is not pronounced like the word hurricane at all. They all pronounce it hur-a-kin.

Same with Houston St. in NYC. It would be Hew-ston like Houston, TX to most of the population outside of NYC. Only those living there or who had visited before know it's pronounced How-ston.

A different pronunciation doesn't mean a lower IQ. -Something my mom reminded me that I have passed along to my kids.

My six year old read the city name Houston in a book the other day and pronounced it How-ston. I corrected her, but I did think about how confusing it would be if she suddenly needed to learn about the street too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regional dialects are one of the beautiful things about our vast nation. I’ve loved living all over and traveling to places where I could enjoy the local way of speaking one of our primary shared languages. There are many words that are commonly mispronounced despite the speaker knowing the proper spelling and pronunciation. It’s a kind of colloquialism.

If the teacher spelled it ‘liberry,’ then I might be concerned. Being concerned about a widespread misusage that is colloquially used in most of the country is very anal retentive.

I agree with you. I love regionalisms.

In grade 7 I requested a transfer out of my English class because, on the first day, the teacher said, "way, shape, form, or fashion." If it had been any class other than English, I wouldn't have cared. The principal let me transfer.

What’s the problem w this?

It's lazy, affected, and unnecessary and I didn't want my writing to be evaluated by someone who said it.