A friend of mine is an instructor in a Sunday-school class for young children. Several classes—one for each age from 6-year-olds to 9-year-olds—come together as a large group for her portion of the day. She not only sings with these kids, but she also teaches a small lesson between sets of songs.
One Sunday, she decided to do an object lesson on helping other people. She brought in some bread, peanut butter, and jelly and pretended to not know how to create a peanut butter and jelly sandwich; she asked the kids to instruct her on how to create one.
My friend is Japanese and speaks English as a second language. As is common for Japanese, when speaking, she inserts an s in places that native speakers might not. In her case, she made “peanut” plural. In addition, pronouncing hard consonants at the end of syllables is difficult for her, so the “t” in peanut disappeared.
The children were quite happy to help my friend create a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They understood her intent every time she asked what to do with the peanut butter on their way to making said peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
All the instructors in the room, however, were aghast. They cringed each time they heard “peanut butter” pronounced. Dozens of times. And my friend had no clue until afterward when one of the instructors informed her what “peanut butter” sounded like. Eww!
Thankfully, the kids remained innocent.
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