Mar
23
2015

How to pronounce the word ‘Sewing’

OK here’s the deal. Ethan came home from school today telling me his English teacher taught him a new word. I said, “Great! Tell me what word is that?” He said, “Siu-wing”.

Me: Suing?
Ethan: No, ‘siu-wing’.
Me: What’s ‘siu-wing’?
Ethan: You know, thread and needles… sewing?
Me: Ah! Soh-ing!
Ethan: Yes. Soh-wing!
Me: No… Soh-ing!
Ethan: Yes. Soh-Wing!

Ok ok. I don’t mind him pronouncing it as ‘soh-wing’ though the ‘w’ is supposed to be silent there but I am definitely disturbed if he pronounced it as ‘siu-wing’!

I told him it is pronounced as ‘soh-ing’; not ‘soh-wing’ and definitely not ‘siu-wing’. BUT kids be kids he only believes in his teacher and starting to doubt himself, me and the entire universe and choose to only trust his teacher!

That’s when a big argument erupted between me and him. It’s the same last year when his English teacher taught them that ‘fingernails’ and ‘toenails’ are the same. He came home to have a good debate with me too.

After what seems like a World War 3, I showed him this:

sewing pronunciation

He kept quiet and packed his bag for tomorrow’s lesson.

Haiz… Where do these teachers graduate from these days? The worst part of all this is my son only chose to listen to his teachers. Teachers are always the smarter ones. Parents are well, you know, ‘stew pig’ old folks who knows nothing but to scold their kids >_<

Tags: English

How Cosmotots Helps Ethan Build a Stronger Foundation in English

About the Author: Merryn Tan

13 Comments + Add Comment

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suituapui March 24, 2015 at 5:43 am

…and there’s google! They are so not pro-active, everything must be served to them on a silver platter…and they’re so complacent – quite happy to be what they are, ignorance is bliss! Hopefully, nothing like – chu-chum-ber…or tea-red.

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Rose March 24, 2015 at 7:28 am

The worst is most teachers (especially Chinese) do not know how to say the letter “z” properly. It is “zee” not “zac”! Gosh!

Haha. Reminded me of Do Re Mi song. So the needle pulling thread…. ;)

Lucky we have google and dictionary. Cannot rely everything on teachers nowadays.

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wenn March 24, 2015 at 8:35 am

Haha..it’s challenging to be an English teacher.

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Christopher March 24, 2015 at 8:50 am

Not su-ing meh?

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[SK] March 24, 2015 at 9:01 am

you are so right!!!! kids trust their teachers are right but not the parents, unless you can prove them wrong.. nowadays at least better, can google for proofs, last time no internet really cari pasal punya..

and what happened to the standards of teachers?? how could we know?? even the Education Minister claimed he could not understand what happened while millions have been pumped for improvements!! if he himself could not even nail down the problem, that is a huge problem!!!

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Zac Efronda March 24, 2015 at 9:26 am

The letter ‘Z’ is actually named as “zed”, not ‘zac’ or ‘jack’. They only started calling it ‘Zee’ just so it could rhyme in the ABC song.
‘H’, the letter, is not “hedge’ but ‘edge’…. So I cannot tahan when ppl say “give A ‘hedge’ “. Supposed to be “give AN ‘edge’ ”
Tenkiuk.

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  sgrmse. March 25, 2015 at 2:30 pm
  
  “Zee” is American, “zed” is British.
  
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    Zac Efronda March 25, 2015 at 2:49 pm
    
    Haha! ‘zee’ is just newer….
    
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CL (RealGunners) March 24, 2015 at 12:07 pm

I think we don’t need to be too harsh on the teachers also lah. Here Malaysia, you know Engrand is not our first language mah, even the teachers would not know every words and pronunciation correctly, especially since there are like a million English words out there. And then there are British and American pronunciation to worry about.

The most important thing (I think) is that Ethan is taught the correct meaning and spelling of the words. He might trust his teacher wrongly on the pronunciation now, but when he grows up, he will eventually learn the correct pronunciation from the internet when he uses those words.

I would be peeved if the teacher say things like: “Don’t trust the internet, the internet is always wrong one!”, or “You wanna pass your exam, then you have to do it my way!”

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mun March 24, 2015 at 1:34 pm

Took me a while to figure out what stew pig (yum! yum!) have got to do with your post. Hahaha, so slow right?

Actually these teachers should really brush up their pronunciation and by right, here the education system teaches British English so the spelling and pronunciation should follow British English and not American English.

After this incident, Ethan will not trust his teacher’s pronunciation already. Pity him also, don’t know which one is correct and which one is not when his teacher teaches him.

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  Merryn March 25, 2015 at 2:35 pm
  
  Haha mun. That’s my Dad’s way of saying ‘stupid’. Lol!
  
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missyblurkit March 24, 2015 at 8:22 pm

terrible English teachers lurking everywhere. one of our nephews came back asking us why the teacher told him that a carpenter is a person who repairs cars.

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Choi Yen March 25, 2015 at 4:29 pm

Don’t forget u used to be a teacher too, hehe :P
Thank you teacher for the pronunciation lesson ^__^

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About Me

Home is where MY heart is.
I am a mother to two boys; Ethan and Ayden and a wife to Darling William. I'm a stay at home mum who blogs to break the monotony of life and to avoid feeling jaded. Would love to get to know all the Super Mommies and Daddies and Babies or Singles out there with the hope that we can learn more from each other. Most of all, I am a happy person, and I hope YOU are too.