Entry 19: Pronunciation

"Lee-po-ter" He annunciated with an air of confidence.
"No" I said in a harsh tone to him, "Re-por-ter"
"Lee-po-ter" He said this time with a bit less confidence.
"No" I said as I was getting agitated "Re-por-ter".
"Lee-po-ter" He said, with a confused look on his face.
"No..." I said in a defeated voice.

I wrote a large "R" and a large "L" on the board. I did not write these on the board for my student's sake, but for the sake of my Korean volunteer teacher, who was correcting students. I think the easiest way to explain what he was doing in my class is like this.

Me: Reporter!
Students: Reforter!
Me: Reporter!
Students: Repoter!
Korean Volunteer Teacher: No! Lee-po-ter.
Students: LEE-PO-TER!

리포타. I had to regain control over my classroom and the unshaped tongues of my students. I was getting quite frustrated by the simple fact, that what I was teaching the kids was simply being negated by the teaching of someone who was supposed to help me during my classes. Thank God for the 1st grade teacher who told the kids "Look at his mouth when he speaks and copy the teacher as best as you can because we want you to speak correctly!" as I taught those wonderful 1st graders how to count to 10. I was glad that she recognized that the importance of a native speaker in the classroom is for the simple fact that these kids wont have an atrocious accent.

My volunteer teacher does not understand this, as he stands right next to my students in all of my classes, and corrects their pronunciation.

Student: Carmputer!
Me: Carpenter!
Student: Carmputer....
Korean Volunteer Teacher: [whispers] calpenta
Student: Calpenta!
Me: caRRRpenteRRR

To make matters even more morose, a girl cried in my 4th grade class. She was unable to say "construction worker", a word that I would say takes some finesse and practice. I broke the word down into syllables, and the entire class learned how to pronounce it with little to no accent, but those kids are vicious to those who do not catch on as quickly. As the girl mumbled "constulucsio worder", the other students laughed and roared, and tears streamed down her face. I quickly hushed the class and started to piece by piece break down the word, and after about 3 minutes, she ceased to cry, and was able to confidently say the word. It broke my heart to see someone cry, especially for a word that had commanded them to say. I hoped that this would be the last time that someone would cry in my class.

Later that day, in my 1st grade class, a girl started to cry, but it was because of the boy sitting next to her, who said something mean. As she wiped her nose, she stuck her tongue out at him, and I let out a little chuckle.

These kids are precious. They are amazing. I'm going to take pictures of them, and hopefully write posts on each grade that I teach. They are extremely intelligent kids. Brace yourself as we meet them in the next few months.

But as a little taste, let me tell you, I love my 3rd graders. My favorite class.