DC's teacher says axing...

[Anonymous]

Frankly my question still stands how does this really affect a child's learning? We live in a polyglot region with quite a few accents and dialects. If you are going to judge someone's capacities so narrowly by a single word of ask versus axe or even a few words or grammatical constructs you will write off a lot of intelligent people that grew up in another place and speak slightly different. Is this really the lesson you want to teach your kid? It is like the modern version of my fair lady are you worthy of teaching my kid or should I send you back to your place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here, what does "youns" mean? I have never heard anyone use this term.

I always thought of this word as coming from the Ozarks and Arkansas region, and maybe northwest Kentucky and the Missouri bootheel. It is another way to say y'all. It is pronounce "yew-ins", accent on the "ins".

This was not meant to sound snide. It just happens to be a phrase that I frequently heard throughout my childhood. I had no idea they used youns in Pennsylvania too.

It's common in western PA and not just among the lower classes and certainly not contained among the scots/irish who are quite assimilated by now. Variants are you-ews and the possessive "youneses"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here, what does "youns" mean? I have never heard anyone use this term. My middle school student' s English teacher last year always wrote "your welcome" on notes when I had thanked her for various things. I always cringed, but did nothing about it.

Maybe you should have - or found a way to get the message to the principal. I know it can be embarrassing to correct someone but think of all the future cringes the teacher would be spared.

Perhaps "your welcome" could be added to the list of common errors people make that's discussed at professional development meetings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Frankly my question still stands how does this really affect a child's learning? We live in a polyglot region with quite a few accents and dialects. If you are going to judge someone's capacities so narrowly by a single word of ask versus axe or even a few words or grammatical constructs you will write off a lot of intelligent people that grew up in another place and speak slightly different. Is this really the lesson you want to teach your kid? It is like the modern version of my fair lady are you worthy of teaching my kid or should I send you back to your place.

It tells the child that there's something wrong about correcting certain errors that a teacher makes in school. It doesn't allow children to learn to distinguish between accents, regionalisms, accepted usage, slang, etc, instead lumping them all together, as witnessed by some adults on this thread. It suggests that college educated people of certain ethnicities can't be expected to use standard English and is thus a subtle form of discrimination.

It's not a matter of completely judging someone's capacities based on one word - it's a matter of correcting an error so that a person - in this case an educator - can address others in a professional manner while at work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummmm...I think that poor linguist person on this thread keeps trying to tell everyone that axe is an accepted alternate pronunciation in linguistic circles, just like tomahto is acceptable. So why does toMAHto not bother anyone if AXE does?

Just axin'.

BTW, I say "melk," and my kids say "milk." Should my school rescind my volunteer privileges?

How about you just start saying milk and cut the hyperbole about rescinding volunteer privileges.

Have you ever tried to change the way you speak? I've been pronouncing it this way since I was a kid, and it's the way milk is pronounced in my part of the country. I didn't even know it was an accent until I moved here. People in the Midwest would be shocked to hear their pronunciation of milk is wrong. That's the point - if you've been taught "axe," you can't just change it, and it's NOT wrong. It's just an alternate pronunciation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummmm...I think that poor linguist person on this thread keeps trying to tell everyone that axe is an accepted alternate pronunciation in linguistic circles, just like tomahto is acceptable. So why does toMAHto not bother anyone if AXE does?

Just axin'.

BTW, I say "melk," and my kids say "milk." Should my school rescind my volunteer privileges?

How about you just start saying milk and cut the hyperbole about rescinding volunteer privileges.

Have you ever tried to change the way you speak? I've been pronouncing it this way since I was a kid, and it's the way milk is pronounced in my part of the country. I didn't even know it was an accent until I moved here. People in the Midwest would be shocked to hear their pronunciation of milk is wrong. That's the point - if you've been taught "axe," you can't just change it, and it's NOT wrong. It's just an alternate pronunciation.

Do you say selk instead of silk? Belk instead of bilk? elk instead of ilk? Guelt instead of guilt? Kelt instead of kilt? etc.

Melk is probably a long-standing habit for you and others from your area - and not a big deal, in my book. But it's not an accent - it's a mispronounced, or let's say alternatively pronounced, word.

[Anonymous]

"It is the second plural of the verb "to be"..."

What?

I am hungry.
You are hungry.
He/she is hungry.
We are hungry.
You (pl.) youns hungry.
They are hungry.

[Anonymous]

What if the teacher said "nuke-ular" for "nuclear"?

[Anonymous]

My ex used to say "melk." I'd change all the I's on the milk cartons to E's.

Well I thought it was funny anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummmm...I think that poor linguist person on this thread keeps trying to tell everyone that axe is an accepted alternate pronunciation in linguistic circles, just like tomahto is acceptable. So why does toMAHto not bother anyone if AXE does?

Just axin'.

BTW, I say "melk," and my kids say "milk." Should my school rescind my volunteer privileges?

How about you just start saying milk and cut the hyperbole about rescinding volunteer privileges.

Have you ever tried to change the way you speak? I've been pronouncing it this way since I was a kid, and it's the way milk is pronounced in my part of the country. I didn't even know it was an accent until I moved here. People in the Midwest would be shocked to hear their pronunciation of milk is wrong. That's the point - if you've been taught "axe," you can't just change it, and it's NOT wrong. It's just an alternate pronunciation.

Do you say selk instead of silk? Belk instead of bilk? elk instead of ilk? Guelt instead of guilt? Kelt instead of kilt? etc.

Melk is probably a long-standing habit for you and others from your area - and not a big deal, in my book. But it's not an accent - it's a mispronounced, or let's say alternatively pronounced, word.

It is mis-pronounced according to you, but who is ultimately the arbitrator here? We don't have a school of experts on the language here in the U.S. like the French. We accept that we speak differently, sometimes that is cringe-worthy witness Jersey Shore, but I don't think any parent here in DC should be making such a big deal about one word. It just teaches your child to be narrow minded

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what? Sometime I misspronounce 'r's, not because I want to misspronounce it, but because I have had speech issues in the past and when I'm tired or stressed I sometimes fall back into my old habit. I would hope that wouldn't disqualify me from any job where I would be in contact with the public, as you guys probably would like me to be.

You have no idea about why the teacher uses those mispronouncations, but my bet is that it is not here trying to say something wrong, and I highly doubt your precious child will pick up on these difforent pronounciations.

Also, one of the best teachers I've ever had had a thick accent, and yes, might not have spoken 100% proper english, I still learned a lot in his class (which was English). Don't judge their skill as a teacher by their accent.

Why continue to bring up being disqualified for a job over a mispronunciation when that was never the issue?

Perhaps it's easier to turn it into something ridiculous than to discuss it on its own merits.

Many people are grateful for being set straight on any number of issues.

You guys were the ones bringing up getting disqualified for a job, since thats what the OP and posts supporting her are argueing, that because this teacher uses 'ax' instead of 'ask', she is somehow not qualified to teach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Why continue to bring up being disqualified for a job over a mispronunciation when that was never the issue?

Perhaps it's easier to turn it into something ridiculous than to discuss it on its own merits.

Many people are grateful for being set straight on any number of issues.

You guys were the ones bringing up getting disqualified for a job, since thats what the OP and posts supporting her are argueing, that because this teacher uses 'ax' instead of 'ask', she is somehow not qualified to teach.

Read back to the beginning and you'll see that's not what the OP said. She wanted to talk to the principal about use of axing. She did not mention getting rid of the teacher. Others brought it up, in some cases facetiously, I thought, to make the whole thing sound outrageous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It is mis-pronounced according to you, but who is ultimately the arbitrator here? We don't have a school of experts on the language here in the U.S. like the French. We accept that we speak differently, sometimes that is cringe-worthy witness Jersey Shore, but I don't think any parent here in DC should be making such a big deal about one word. It just teaches your child to be narrow minded

And who are you to determine what parents should be doing and what teaches a child to be narrow-minded?

People make judgements every day about people based on how they talk. Having known standards for teachers and other professionals who deal with the public might not be a bad thing.

[Anonymous]

Ok, so instead of asking if a teacher can bring a concept to life for your child you are worried about their pronunciation of a few words? Yes I get that people make judgments on language this thread would not be 11 pages if people did not, I just question a parent making that the priority issues about her child'd education. If you ask me this country has become far too worried about this issue than how well our kids read or can do math. I just don't see threads this long on math programs or reading programs.

[Anonymous]

It's really pretty amusing to recall all of the previous posts about the high standards of private school admissions and then to read this thread with so many posters appearing to not be worried about teachers' language usage. Maybe not the same posters? Otherwise, it doesn't make sense.