From Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, Dec 13, 2002 Philippine Daily Inquirer) Interview with (unnamed) education expert. Host: If the school is proven to be guilty of being nothing more than a diploma mill, what can be done about it? Guest: Well, we can rebuke the school's permit to operate.
....and the guest speaker was none other than Dr. Evelyn White Kandakai (Minister of Education - Liberia)?
I did not see or read the interview but I believe that the guest in question meant that they can "revoke" the school's permit to operate. It may have been interpreted as "rebuke" because of her accent, intonation, etc. It is not uncommon for many Africans to pronounce the letter "V" as "B". Ike Okonkwo, PhD.
Spanish-speakers also tend to sound "b" and "v" alike. My wife Rosie can't distinguish such pairs of English words as "boat" and "vote" (just as I can't distinguish such pairs of Spanish words as pero and perro, or via and villa). I once even had to explain to her the difference between "vicarious" and "bi-curious"!
Well, to help out our English as a second language speaking sisters and brothers, I bote to eliminate the letter 'v' and replace it with a 'b' in all words. It's a bery stupid and superfluous letter anyway.
Thank you, Dr. Ike, for the timely reminder that it can be inappropriate to make fun of an alleged mistake that can be "accent" related. --John Bear, thinking that our brief flurry of posting punch lines a week or so ago should have included, "Good Lord, it says Celebrate"
