pronunciation kerry i wasn’t trained in tutoring pronunciation, just placed at those little round tables. about half of the university students were saudi arabian. they’d bring a magazine article or choose a children’s book from the shelf, sometimes the hardy boys, and we’d wade through the sentences. there were guides with drawings of where to place the tongue and how to shape it–behind the teeth or between the top and bottom, whether to use the tip or flatten it, place it against the roof of the mouth, how to shape your lips, and we had little mirrors for the students to hold up so they could watch themselves form the sounds but no one liked the mirrors for some reason, and the books were only kind of helpful. something subtly erotic in pronunciation tutoring watch my mouth no, more like this, put your tongue here a sudden shyness and eventually exhausted laughter from both of us: “that’s good enough for today.” around my shoulders, my hair floated loose, the color of an apricot and contrasted with the suffocating weight of cologne. “women are different here. in my country they don’t wear tight pants or smoke or drive (this was several years ago) we’d trade places: “let me show you how to write your name in arabic,” and they’d laugh at my attempts. the curve should be rounder, the angle higher, i made it too long, too sharp. “eh, good enough.” 220406 what's it to you? who go blather from