DC's teacher says axing...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unacceptable in a teacher. Who knows what other words she mispronounces.

Oh Stop. People today would rather have 'teacher-bots of perfection created in Bill Gates lab' than real, warm-blooded humans. I mispronounce lots of words--sometimes my students correct me. Especially the names of esoteric dinosaurs which they are much more versed in. Sometimes we actually discuss how we think words are pronounced and go and look them up, versus me just telling them. Sometimes, oh my, we discover words that people like you are probably pronouncing incorrectly-- like 'forte'.

Your child knows that what her teacher means is 'asking'. You have modeled it in your home for years. You can gently highlight the different forms to your child, so she knows yours is standard English. You can explain regional differences and dialects. As they say in linguistics, "A dialect is a language without an army". Think about it.

Most language is learned from friends on the playground anyway. Teach your child to talk about language, and think about standard and non-standard usages and situation.

Children are short-changed with a line of thinking that assumes using correct English means a teacher can't be real and warm-blooded. They deserve both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unacceptable in a teacher. Who knows what other words she mispronounces.

Oh Stop. People today would rather have 'teacher-bots of perfection created in Bill Gates lab' than real, warm-blooded humans. I mispronounce lots of words--sometimes my students correct me. Especially the names of esoteric dinosaurs which they are much more versed in. Sometimes we actually discuss how we think words are pronounced and go and look them up, versus me just telling them. Sometimes, oh my, we discover words that people like you are probably pronouncing incorrectly-- like 'forte'.

Your child knows that what her teacher means is 'asking'. You have modeled it in your home for years. You can gently highlight the different forms to your child, so she knows yours is standard English. You can explain regional differences and dialects. As they say in linguistics, "A dialect is a language without an army". Think about it.

Most language is learned from friends on the playground anyway. Teach your child to talk about language, and think about standard and non-standard usages and situation.

I doubt the axe teacher is using her mispronunciation as a learning tool the way you are. She might if she were aware that it was incorrect, but unfortunately no one is telling her. An esoteric dinosaur name is a lot different than a commonly used verb.

[Anonymous]

I agree with you, but if she is using axe correctly in a sentence in the same way that one would use ask - I would let it go. It could bug the heck out of you, but it is dialect/pronunciation - and it is something you can mention and highlight to your child on the side. If she is directly instructing all the children to say "Axe" not ask, then I would be alarmed. I am betting that she spells the word 'ask'.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with you, but if she is using axe correctly in a sentence in the same way that one would use ask - I would let it go. It could bug the heck out of you, but it is dialect/pronunciation - and it is something you can mention and highlight to your child on the side. If she is directly instructing all the children to say "Axe" not ask, then I would be alarmed. I am betting that she spells the word 'ask'.

Do you think the parents of Sidwell Friends' students are having this same internet conversation? I'm betting not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with you, but if she is using axe correctly in a sentence in the same way that one would use ask - I would let it go. It could bug the heck out of you, but it is dialect/pronunciation - and it is something you can mention and highlight to your child on the side. If she is directly instructing all the children to say "Axe" not ask, then I would be alarmed. I am betting that she spells the word 'ask'.

Do you think the parents of Sidwell Friends' students are having this same internet conversation? I'm betting not.

Agree - such a teacher would not be hired at a private school and if one slipped through, she'd be told about it and given speech lessons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with you, but if she is using axe correctly in a sentence in the same way that one would use ask - I would let it go. It could bug the heck out of you, but it is dialect/pronunciation - and it is something you can mention and highlight to your child on the side. If she is directly instructing all the children to say "Axe" not ask, then I would be alarmed. I am betting that she spells the word 'ask'.

Why mention it to your child only "on the side?"

It would be interesting to see what happened if some of the kids asked their teacher about axe. Or would that be considered rude, and if so, why, assuming it's OK to correct pronunciation of dinosaur names?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This week DC started school (K) at a supposedly good public school in NW, and I met and spoke with the new teacher a couple of times and she says constantly "axing". And I also had trouble with her pronunciation of other words. I am really stunned by this, especially by the 'axing' and actually think it's unacceptable that a teacher speaks anything else than grammatically correct English.
To me this is not an accent, it's incorrect English. The teacher is relatively new.
When I spoke with some friends about this, I get nervous reactions like I am not being PC.
How can I best address this? Talk to the teacher? Ask her about it? Talk to the principal?

Best kind of teacher "axing" described here by Mary.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-opinions/2009/11/addition_through_subtraction_a.html

[Anonymous]

Well who really cares about what happens at Sidwell. I am AA and agree with most posters that in schools all teachers should speak standard English. This isn't a problem I have personally encountered at school but have certainly heard the pronounciation used here in DC and other parts of the south (disagree with the poster who said that it is a rare pronounciation among white southerners). OP - I would talk to the principal about this at the same time just because she mispronounces this word doesn't mean she is uneducated or a poor teacher.

Some of us highly educated AAs lead double lives when it comes to standard English and AAVE - slipping into weird pronounciations like "li-burry" (DC dialect) and slang when at home or at ease with friends and family. As a rule, I never talk like that in front of ANY white people - not even close friends - because I don't want to be tagged as being uneducated and uncouth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well who really cares about what happens at Sidwell. I am AA and agree with most posters that in schools all teachers should speak standard English. This isn't a problem I have personally encountered at school but have certainly heard the pronounciation used here in DC and other parts of the south (disagree with the poster who said that it is a rare pronounciation among white southerners). OP - I would talk to the principal about this at the same time just because she mispronounces this word doesn't mean she is uneducated or a poor teacher.

Some of us highly educated AAs lead double lives when it comes to standard English and AAVE - slipping into weird pronounciations like "li-burry" (DC dialect) and slang when at home or at ease with friends and family. As a rule, I never talk like that in front of ANY white people - not even close friends - because I don't want to be tagged as being uneducated and uncouth.

I mentioned Sidwell because it's viewed as an excellent school that attracts students from varied backgrounds, and supposedly most parents there aren't prejudiced. Yet, they try to maintain a teaching staff that's top-notch. As much as possible, the public schools should do the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is "axing"? What word is she trying to say? Is that slang? Never heard of this before. Just curios. Thanks!

She is saying "aks" in place of the word "ask." In AAVE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_American_Vernacular_English) and sometimes Southern American English, metathesised forms are often used, and ask is pronounced "aks."

Why are you using the terminology "Southern American English" to answer the poster's question? To be politially correct? I would agree that other groups of people (southern and otherwise) also mispronounce words, but in the region of the south, it would be extremely rare (as in, almost never) to hear anyone other than an African American say "aksing."

I'm using the terminology because that's what it's called. Not saying it to be politically correct, simply because it is correct. If I called it a Southern accent instead, would you feel better?

Also, the south is a big region. That's why I used the qualifier "sometimes."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We know a DC librarian who says "li-berry"! I kid you not.

Anonymous wrote:Almost as bad as our lOcal DC librarian calling "Anansi" the spider "A Nazi" the spider. It's awful. I'd talk to the principal gently.

Keep in mind that these people might not actually be librarians(with a masters degree), but library clerks. There are far more clerks than librarians in public libraries.

[Anonymous]

Sidwell exists in a bubble. This whole discussion is such a non-issue. Yes, this is DC: ax, li-burry, curry out. If the teacher seems like a 'good teacher' don't ask them to change an entire speech pattern. They might be leading an animated discussion on history, but you would like their CPU powers focused on ax versus ask? I get its not the usage you want your child to develop, and I'm the last person to be PC, but seriously get over it. Your child will survive this experience, and as someone noted previously--not indicative of lower ability etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with you, but if she is using axe correctly in a sentence in the same way that one would use ask - I would let it go. It could bug the heck out of you, but it is dialect/pronunciation - and it is something you can mention and highlight to your child on the side. If she is directly instructing all the children to say "Axe" not ask, then I would be alarmed. I am betting that she spells the word 'ask'.

I'd hope that she knows to spell it 'ask,' but in K, they are working on letters/sounds and sounding out words. The order of sounds in 'aks' is incorrect and I worry that this would cause difficulties for a young child.

I'm a teacher and this bothers me to no end. People CAN learn to speak correctly, it is not that difficult. I know an amazing AA teacher who tells the kids that they need to learn to speak "paycheck English." If they want to earn a paycheck someday, they had better have the ability to speak English correctly. It doesn't matter how you talk to your friends/family, in some situations you need to use a different tone/dialect/whatever you want to call it.

[Anonymous]

My professor (with a phd) who teaches me how to be a teacher says ax instead of ask.

You disgust me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is "axing"? What word is she trying to say? Is that slang? Never heard of this before. Just curios. Thanks!

She is saying "aks" in place of the word "ask." In AAVE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_American_Vernacular_English) and sometimes Southern American English, metathesised forms are often used, and ask is pronounced "aks."

Why are you using the terminology "Southern American English" to answer the poster's question? To be politially correct? I would agree that other groups of people (southern and otherwise) also mispronounce words, but in the region of the south, it would be extremely rare (as in, almost never) to hear anyone other than an African American say "aksing."

I'm using the terminology because that's what it's called. Not saying it to be politically correct, simply because it is correct. If I called it a Southern accent instead, would you feel better?

Also, the south is a big region. That's why I used the qualifier "sometimes."

Which American English do you speak?