It's been awhile since I've blogged so I've got a little catching up to do. A few weeks ago a friend from church called and asked me if I ever did any "language or pronunciation training" or knew of someone who did. She was looking for someone who'd be willing to teach her and 2 of her friends from Columbia to speak better English.
The last time I worked on ESL pronunciation specifically was at St. Cloud State with one of the engineering profs from China. He wanted to speak better English so his students could readily understand him. I recall him bringing fantastically difficult engineering terms to practice that I would have to look up to figure out how to pronounce myself...humbling for both of us I think. We had a great time though!
I kind of felt like God was placing this in front of me as another opportunity to practice what may be coming in my future...even if I don't end up overseas to at least be able to use my training to help people FROM other countries. This past Wednesday was our first "lesson" and we had a blast! Two of the three know English pretty well, one is very new to the U.S. I wasn't exactly sure how far we'd get or how much to prep but after working on consonant sounds we decided to call it a night. I think they were feeling a little overwhelmed by that point. Oh friends, just wait for vowels! Our language is nuts! We have rules for our rules and exceptions to our exceptions. I am excited for our study time together and hope they get something helpful from it! :)
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