The Tower of Babel was the perfect Bible lesson for the day. I was subbing for the 3rd grade class at GCChristian Schools, which is associated with the church we're attending. We began the day with the pledge, a prayer and turning to Genesis 11:1-9. "Now the whole world had one language and a common dialect..."
"What's a dialect?" I asked. No response. "People from England speak English, but they sound like a Mary Poppins movie. They have a different dialect." I thought that was a brilliant comparison. The children politely nodded and we finished the story.
The next assignment was Language Arts. There was a list of words that they were to rhyme. The first one was 'crown'. So I asked, "Who can think of a word that rhymes with crown?" I could tell they were thinking, but decided they were just shy, so I asked Pamela.
She shook her head. "I can't think of a word that rhymes with 'crayon'.
"Oh, honey, not 'crayon',the word is 'crou-un', like a king wears on his
hey-yud."
"You mean, 'crown'!"
(aren't we saying the same thing here?)
Heads and hands popped up. "Oh! 'crown'!"
"I know!" "frown!" "town!" "down!"
It was a great object lesson for the Tower of Babel. I explained that I was from Texas and that people in Florida talked wrong.
"You're from Texas?!" Nicholas was impressed. "Have you ever been in a big tornado?"
"Yes, I have."
"Cool! What was it's name?"
(these poor hurricane babies)
"Well, I guess we have so many that there isn't time to name them all."
When we first moved here, I was curious to listen for the Florida accent. Instead, I heard people from Boston, New York, and England. Yesterday, a deliveryman noticed my Texas license plate. (still haven't changed it) "You heah from Texas? I'm from New Yoak. Been heah three yeahs. My brothah moved to Texas. He didden like it. Took a beatin on his house and moved back heah to Flahradah. Took him twenty-foah houahs in his cah."
I gave him a tip and a bottle of water.
"Good luck in your new house. Hey, thanks for the watah."
"You're welcome." I smiled and waved and shut the door.
"And good luck finding your R's!"
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5 comments:
Our kids got this one mixed up, too! The solution, of course, is to avoid the snooty crayon word. . . everyone from Texas knows they're really called "cullers", aren't they?
As a kid I moved from Illinois to New York and then to North Carolina. With each and every move, the new state decided I that I "talked" wrong and would put me in speech class. How funny it is that we get so used to the area of the country that we live in that we don't even realize that we pronouce words differently than others and then assume that we are always correct. I've noticed it alot with the Courtney learning to spell because she was taught to spell according to the way the word sounded. The other day in 2nd grade, her teacher gave her the word "famous" to spell on the pre-test. Courtney heard fame-is and so that is how she spelled it. When she came home and we were going over the correct way to spell it she told me that if her teacher had said fame-us she thought she would have spelled in correctly. Courtney's spelling has definitely had its ups and downs based on who is saying the word and how she says the word. Just one of those things that makes you say, hmmm?
Glad to see your blog back up and running. I miss your stories in Aware and get a real big laugh out of the ones on your blog.
Kelley Thomas
I think it's really interesting how our accents tend to come out more when people mention the word Texas. I tend to have a very "southern draw" when talking about my state!
That is so funny! Those kids need to learn how to talk right!
My friend had the same problem when we were studying in England and she went to read to some school children as a project for one of her classes. They could not understand her when she said "herbs" with a silent "h"... they could not grasp why she did not pronounce the "h" like they do. Kids are funny.
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