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I admit to deleting most of the beginning of this thread. I'm glad I
read it today... what a variety of perspectives!
I am French Canadian and only spoke french until I was six. The
teachers at my English school complained that my accent and a mild
speech impediment made it very difficult for others to understand me.
Seven years of speech therapy (your Canadian tax dollars hard at
work!), left me with a Boston-esque accent (my speech therapist was
from Boston), so I am now constantly asked if I'm from Boston or New
York (I never did fully conquer those "R's"!!).
I try to concentrate on my diction, but there are words I will never
be able to pronounce correctly. My friends and family have made a joke
of it, and periodically try and put me in situations where I have no
choice but to use one of my problem words. I haven't fallen for that
in years.
I continue to have problems pronouncing new and/or unfamiliar words.
There is a huge difference between my written word and my spoken word.
When asked how I am, I tend to answer "I'm good!". I know that
grammatically I should say "I'm well", or "I'm fine", but that doesn't
sound like me. Thankfully, situations similar to this example seldom
appear in my user guides.
I find spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors in every major
newspaper I read, on a regular basis. If they can be forgiven their
written, then surely I can be forgiven my verbal mistakes (okay - I
make some written mistakes too, but most people I know just pick on my
verbal mistakes!!)
Life's too short. I liken it to the difference between wearing a suit
or wearing a pair of jeans - whatever suits the occasion.
Suzette Leeming
Stouffville, Ontario
--
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
- William James
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