Jaime TP6

My last formal meeting with Jee was over pronunciation. Jee mentioned that she had some words to review, and I quickly skimmed through my linguistics book’s phonetics chapter. I think pronunciation is one of my favorite things to work on, because I become so much more aware of my own articulation as well as the tutee’s.

Jee was having a problem with pronouncing p, b, v, l, and r. I was happy to introduce her to aspirated and unaspirated consonants. I had her hold her hand in front of her mouth to feel the difference when she says b compared to when she says p. Within a couple of minutes Jee was able to pick up the imitation perfectly. V was not too much of a stretch either. L and R are a bit more on the tricky side. I drew a guide reference, and then illustrated the motions with my hands. I had Jee exaggerate her L’s by telling her to start with the tongue tipped against the alveolar ridge and slapping it down into place in the ‘well’ of the mouth. This worked. After some intensive practice time Jee was able to produce distinguishable l and r sounds. She’s done this before. And I reminded her that when I made Jee close her eyes to practice. Perhaps I watched too much Star Wars as a child (see: Luke’s training to use the force) but I think sometimes it helps with learning to do something with your eyes close. You pay attention to the kinesthetics of an action.

When we went to words I realized Jee’s problem wasn’t in the individual letters but in stringing everything together in one go. Take the word ballerina.

Say it. BALLERINA. Say it slowly. Now pay attention to your tongue and the way your mouth moves. Seeing Jee overwhelmed reminded me of how overwhelmed I get when trying to spit something out in Arabic or construe something in Chinese- your mouth just isn’t used to the rhythm of the sounds. We talked about this, and I suggested that Jee focus on saying her sentences slow and clearly and then going faster. We practiced this a bit, and she showed real improvement.

As the lesson came to an end, Jee and I went on an hour long tangent of families and raising children. We talked about her childhood, her son, my childhood, and growing up. The whole conversation was incredibly intriguing, and it was interesting to see Jee’s perspective on everything. I think my favorite part was that children in Korea are expected to be reading and writing by the time they are four, and that Jee was having a hard time finding a preschool that she could send Eric to that would emphasize these values. I told her I was reading before kindergarten, but that my mom worked with me. We talked about phonics and how it would be good for both Jee and Eric if she would start teaching him how to read.