Show TAKE MY WORD FOR IT ITay By ay Frank Fronk Colby This letter is typical of many that come to me every week The writer is a border girl of Mexican Mexican can parentage I will vill predate for helping to speak inglish good and correct Must of the time I get my self all mixed up and some words I 1 speak them broke Please be bekind bekind bekind kind and help Such letters are a challenge that I scarcely know how to meet But it t isn't hard to understand understand understand under under- stand the deep longing for self- self improvement which motivates our citizens who feel themselves themselves them them- s selves handicapped because of a foreign accent and an imperfect knowledge of the American lan lan- guage Would that I had a magic wand to wave for them Schooling obviously is one of the best and quickest means for language improvement either by enrolling in day or night school or by engaging a tutor The next best is to use the language Read it it write it and above all speak it on ever every oc oc- oc casion Do not fear being laughed at for your mistakes For every unkind person you'll find a hundred who will ill be happy happy happy hap hap- py to help you Train your ear by listening carefully to people who speak good English Listen to the radio and the talking pictures as much muchas as you can and try to form fonn the words correctly as you hear them spoken When you are sure ure that you know how a word should sound practice saying it until it becomes easy and natural for you jou Dont Don't hesitate to ask people to correct you Smile and ask Did I say that correctly They will know then that you are sincere sincere sincere sin sin- cere in trying to learn and that thata a correction will not offend you Try to persuade your family to speak nothing but English in inthe inthe inthe the home It may mav be hard at first especially fo for r the foreign- foreign born bom But it will come easier every day for all |