Where there are Jingles, there is hope!

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

One of my clients is working very hard to develop her "er" gesture. This gesture is

used very commonly in English. For example it is the last vowel in the words

"labor", "soccer", and is the sole vowel in the words "gird" and "search". The greatest

difficulty that the client is having with her "er" is that it is not consistent.

At times she pronounces "er" as most Americans would, raising her tongue slightly at

the end of phonation. At other times she keeps her tongue flat as she finishes phonation,

resulting in an "er" rendition identical to the renditions of most speakers of Australian and

New Zealand English. At still other times, her "er" vibrates slightly from the throat while at

the same time emanating from the end of her tongue, held flat as it would be in one of

her Australian renditions of "er" -- resulting in a very England English "er".

This client is justifiably worried about the way she sounds. After all, she is very meticulous

in her efforts to produce England English with the best elocution she can muster. Therefore,

she and I will have to continue polishing her mostly nativelike English pronunciation application

techniques.

Finally, since she is still in the midst of sharpening her ability to produce her "er" in a

consistently England English manner, she often becomes confused when speaking with

people from the more than 150 countries in the world where English is not spoken natively --

and whose renditions of "er" are never produced in any of the manners produced by people

whose native language is English.

Thankfully, she and I have "The Jingles" to rely on! Where there are Jingles, there is hope!

Steve Walker

Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

EarthSaver