Today I went to an extra pronunciation session at the school where I’m studying Spanish. I find the “rr” practically impossible to make, and I don’t know why. I’m not sure whether it’s some sort of genetic thing, like being able to roll your tongue in general, but I’ve started to wonder whether this is to do with my being tongue tied (my tongue is really small and doesn’t leave my mouth, but I like to think of it as a mutation which means I can’t choke on my own tongue). I’ve resolved to ignore this fact, and not to give up. If you keep on trying you are bound to improve!
I’m starting to think that “native teachers” have their flaws, which is that because they have not consciously learned their own language, they don’t know how to teach a student to do something that is so natural and obvious to them. My own teacher seemed to find it entirely ridiculous that I couldn't do something as simple as roll my "r", and tried to teach me by smugly rolling her "r" for a long time. I left the class feeling pretty demoralised, to say the least.
I think what I ACTUALLY learned in that hour is how not to treat the children I will be helping to improve their English. Still, a valuable lesson.
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