Aspirate those T's

One of my favorite things to do during summer school was to greet students as they came into the building. Many of them had limited English language ability, so when I greeted them and asked them how they were, they all invariably gave the same word-for-word response. They would pause on the staircase landing, take a breath, and then clearly articulate (over articulate, really) each word with an ever-so-small pauses in between each.

"I am fine, thank you."

Wow. So formal. So polite.

After working with local students for the summer, I started to pick up on some of their other Enlgish language patterns. First, among these pint-size emerging Enlgish language users, I noticed that they did not use contractions. Every word got its due.

Instead of "I didn cut her hair" it was "I did not cut her hair." (Actually we know you did, three of your classmates saw you do it.)

Instead of "I won't write on the back of the teacher aide's shirt anymore," it was "I will not write on the back of the teacher aide's shirt anymore" (Darn right you won't. First your cut a girl's hair. Now this?)

The second thing I noticed was that compared to native English speakers, our local students tended to aspirate all of the their T's. In English, even though we spell it "button" we don't really say it that way. We say something a little closer to "buddon." When saying Wheaton College, very few native speakers apsirate that internal T so that a little punch of air comes out between the teeth. Most say something half way between a T and a D.

In their quest for precision, our little local students aspirated everything.

"Why did your teacher send you down to my office"

"Because I was NaughTy."

"You were being nawdy?"

"Yes. I was mean to QuenTin. But I will not be naughTy anymore."

Way too cute.

Unless you're the girl who got her hair cut.

Then it's not so cute.

-Jack