Now I know my ABCs...

While it's not quite the moral or philosophical conundrum I addressed in my post on religion, another conflict of thinking reared its ugly head today while I was helping Lucas learn his letters. After getting him to write out the letters in his own name, I let him pick what other letters he wanted to try. After doing 'M' and 'N,' he asked me how to write 'Z.'

Now most of your probably know where I'm going with this, but for those of you who don't, in Canada, 'Z' is pronounced 'zed' whereas in the U.S., it is 'zee.' I really, really, really don't like the Canadian/British version, and I have gone out of my way not to use it since I have lived here. Luckily, there isn't much call for using it in a standard conversation so I've been free from its burden for several years. (Seriously, it doesn't even rhyme in the alphabet song!)

So getting back to the story, Lucas asked me how to write 'zed.' I cringed internally and was well on my way to correcting him, but then I hesitated since I realized he wouldn't understand why there are two different ways of pronouncing it. Rather than putting him at odds with his future teachers and classmates, I decided to just let it go. I'll adopt a "when in Rome" attitude since it is the standard for the country I'm living in. Kind of like how I control my natural desire to mock French speakers...most of the time. Well, sometimes.

It did make me realize this is just the beginning of him speaking with an accent/dialect that drives me nutty at times. For instance, the way Canadians pronounce "process" with a long 'o' (pro-cess vs the U.S. prah-cess) or the 'a' in Mazda sounding like the 'a' in apple as opposed to the American pronunciation Mahz-da). I want to correct them every time I hear it even though I realize it's their country, and I'm just the guest. So I bottle it up, and come one step closer to that ulcer or heart attack each day. I'm sure I'll snap completely on that day 13-14 years from now when Lucas tells me he is in the pro-cess of buying a Maz-da, eh?

FYI, I am typing this post on my desktop PC, as opposed to the laptop that has the damaged 'e' key. I haven't fixed it yet since I have heard I may be able to do it myself for much cheaper so I am exploring that option. I am able to type on it, albeit slowly, so I will probably put up a new picture-filled post tomorrow. Anyway, enjoy and have a great week, all!