05:43 28/02/2011
Endless passion
Then the teacher appeared. Old coat, scarf wrapped around, a huge cigarette between his teeth. His first words: “Hello everyone! It’s so cold. It’s so cold that my ears hurt. It’s unbearable. It’s indescribable… Do you see the difference? That’s language!” Then he enthusiastically analyzed the differences in the statements. First, the scarf was in a pile on the chalk-dusted table, then the coat was thrown on the back of the chair, then sweat was beading under his parted hair that was starting to turn gray. Then he suddenly changed direction: “That’s vocabulary, grammar, and today we’re going to be exposed to phonetics, a difficult but very interesting subject. The world began with words. The Bible says so.” Suddenly, the teacher put his hand to his neck, his mouth opened wide, his tongue stuck out, his nose wrinkled, his eyebrows raised. He introduced us to the pronunciation department. With a few strokes on the board we understood what makes the sounds of speech, the A, E, O, U, B, M, D… Four lessons flew by.