New view of ABC's, 123's, and other shiznit

Most of us recite the alphabet in song. Sing please: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l-m-n-o-p.

I never thought much pronouncing each letter until this summer. My experience teaching ESL has been rewarding in more ways to count--but the first reward is appreciating the nuances of pronunciation.

When you hear an individual letter--"d"--you see the pronunciation as D-E-E.

The alphabet goes on and on.

D-E-E
E-E-E
F-F-H
G-E-E
H-C-H
E-Y-E
J-A-A

Not to mention what is elementary simple to you and me--1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

But for me to recite numbers in Espanol--uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, siete, ocho, nueve, diez--I have one problem. Unless I am using my fingers to remember my numbers, I forget six--seises--just like my Ana has trouble with eight and ten.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eighty, nine, eleven."

"No Ana, say it rapido--one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, EIGHT, nine, TEN."

She repeats over and over until she masters numbers without flaws.

We left the alphabet and numbers for clothing.

Pants, trousers, and blue jeans...raincoats, overalls, and sweat pants...boxers and briefs...bikinis and swim trunks....bras, panties, and thongs...

Only Jesus Maria had a little trouble with shirt.

Native Spanish speakers either roll their r's (making the English word sound like a Spanish word) or usually leave the "r" all together (for fear of rolling their r's, a no-no in English).

"What is this?"

"Camisa"

"Si, en Espanol. Camisa. En Ingles. SH-IR-T."

"Shit."

"No, no, no. Shirt."

"Shit."

"No, no, no. Mierde--en Espanol--is shit in English. Shirt is shirt... with an IRRR in the middle. This is a shirrrt, shirrrrt."

"Shit. Shit."

"No, shirrrrrrt. Shirrrrrrt."

"Shit."

I'll leave it with that. Shit.