it's Positivity at the end of the day

I have heard it many times, from a few friends, my own father and also people who don't have a clue about my real life that, 'I have everything'.
Do I really have it all?

Well I don't think so. Not to be ungrateful of what I have but I do feel my life lacks something.

My dad never fails remind me of the 'perfect' life i'm living and entitled to live ( hopefully) every time he thinks my self-esteem needs a little boost and the highlight being, I have a great 'career' awaiting which guarantees a good future.
But guess what, the only thing I feel my life lacks is passion and the reason being the same career my dad mentioned.

Deep inside, I've always sighed upon the fact that I didn't get to do what I really wanted to do. Frankly, it's too late  and I'm fully conscious about it yet nothing wrong in reflecting right? So I proceed.
My dad knows very well he can never convince me to be happy with the present, he tries though ( still he is..). On the other side, I have given up. I gave up trying to seek a way to run back on time and change everything that took place, which I also deem impossible. Then I made up my mind to take away all options. I believed and still believe if no choice is given, one way becomes mandatory. That one move left me with only one safe road, which is to try to teach.

I didn't mention passion, I didn't say I will change my views on this profession but all I was willing to do is learn the job. Point blank, I will never like teaching young kids because it is VERY exhausting. You need to throw your voice so that the whole class could hear, you need to entertain silly questions, you need to work on your patience which will say goodbye and attempt to leave you even before a lesson ends and also the pressure from the management and parents. Wait, did I mention the teachers' grapevine? Yes it's just the non-classy version of office politics that will further deplete your energy and will to proceed.

Plus to know this deep and demand me to love teaching is hard and nearly impossible. But as I mentioned I   agreed to convince myself to learn every single detail about it and by hook or by crook deceive students and people around me of my love towards this profession.

I don't have a choice nor I want to create one as they will call me a tomfool. Who would want to leave an easy-come and forever-there job which pays one well? Considering that I'm not making myself eligible for the title.  And  guess what, I discovered the good behind my decision.

My macro-teaching the other day marveled me and I really didn't expect that. If you were to say teaching kids from the last class is a tough job, getting a response and making the first class students laugh and enjoy and come out from their passive shell is equally hard. I tell you what, I succeeded the latter. In case you have been following my posts, you'd be able to notice how signs used to batter my belief system but this time though it's a good sign which boosts everything like a can of 'Revive' instead. Hence the key being, to never give up.

No matter how negative things appear to be, wait with much patience for the good things which are on their way to reach you. Today it may be hard, tomorrow it might be worse but don't judge the unseen future.

Remember, life will take you by surprises, sometimes the good ones and at times the bad ones pop out, it's ok. If you fall, dust it off, if you cheer, do it all loud!

Believe this is YOUR life, even the bitter most decisions you make today can bring sweet outcomes in the future if you are just willing to let loose and watch time mend even the once-impossible. It's all about positivity at the end of the day =)

The journey goes on.....

Renuka G

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Speech Sound Classification

Ok lets get down on the speech sound classification. Always bear in mind throughout this so-called mock lesson that we are dealing with sounds of ENGLISH! Not Urdu, Arabic or French. Understand??

The IPA chart. What does a IPA  chart bears?  The most evident one is phonetic alphabets.  Now you the forgetful bunch might ask, what is that? Phonetic alphabets is what assists you in pronouncing a particular word even if you are an Indonesian attempting to speak English or other languages. It serves crucial importance as alphabetic spelling can’t denote the right pronunciation, deceiving its speakers in terms of meaning and the word-used itself.

Well honey, alphabetic spelling can signify the pronunciation of words, but representations merely through spelling or orthography can confuse things, further leaving you sipping another few cups of coffee to just stay on the same page. Pathetic! Depending only on alphabetic spelling can give you a devastating F in exam. Why? Because:

1.       Different alphabets may represent single sound

To, two, threw  ( easy example; you can’t pronounce two as t-woh right?) All three make use of the sound [u] as in /tu/, for to and two and /θru/ for threw. NOT their respective alphabetic sounds!

2.       A single alphabet may represent different sounds

Call, hard, dad (without the help of phonetic alphabets “call” can become “kall”) the vowel ‘a’ is used in these three words but it is not pronounced in the same way . call is mouthed /kɔl/, hard as /hɑrd/ and dad is pronounced /dæd/.

3.       Some letters are silent sounds in certain words. (Dead alphabets, easy to remember)

Write /raɪt/ (dead w) ,knot/nɒt/(dead k) , gnaw/nɔ/(dead g). Very easy right this one?? So from this moment onwards no more “veh-right” ok?

I think those  three are enough to justify why phonetic alphabets are worth worshipping! They serve as the heartbeat of pronunciations okay? Now let’s put the IPA chart under the spotlight.

Well you know how a typical IPA  chart looks like, don’t you? If you saying NO then I would kindly link you one.  http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter1/chapter1.html

The IPA consonant chart

1.      1. The IPA chart is a guideline on the production and classification of the particular phonetic alphabet sound.  It is further divided into vowels, diacritics, vowels, suprsegmentals and other symbols.The above is the IPA consonant chart.

2.      2. By understanding the IPA consonant chart you can deduce some information about English consonantal sounds. You recognize its place of articulation (horizontal ), manner of articulation(vertical) and identify voiced/voiceless sounds (the one on the right side in paired symbols are voiced consonants) of a particular phoneme.

Hmm to make it easy to remember; just imagine you are somewhere. First you must consider where you are (place), then think in what way you want to behave (manner), finally decide whether you wanna talk or just keep silent (voiced/voiceless)

Well this table below is a simplified one to understand the consonant chart ( you may ignore the affricates as they are the “combination of consonants” and not consonants by themselves but it might be useful in coming chapters..who knows..)

Simplified version

Well to understand on the places and manner of articulation I think it would be better to link you guys to http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter1/flash.html  (make sure you have your flashplayer updated ) and for voiced/voiceless sounds, do visit http://www.eflnet.com/tutorials/voicedsounds.php if in case you have forgetten how we used to hold our throat to feel vibration for voiced sounds and experiment whether paper sheet can fly in the making of voiceless sounds.

Before we end on consonants let me clear up on some things stated on the chart. Did you realize the word “pulmonic” stated in the bracket just beside “consonants”. Ask me why!

For your knowledge guys, all sounds in English are pulmonic sounds. They are sounds made by using air from our lungs which is then pushed out (egressed) in the process of producing these sounds. This mechanism is called the Pulmonic Egressive Airstream Mechanism.

Thank You

Renuka G

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