I was standing by a chair in a school classroom gathering up my books and possessions and preparing to go into another classroom to take an hour-long test about a book I had read. For part of the test I was going to have to make a
collage.Several girls who were my classmates (probably in their early 20s) were standing near me. I had put some of my credit cards on the seat of the chair by me and I began scrapping them off the chair into one of my books, which I held open in one of my hand. I noticed an American Express, a Hertz and a number of other credit cards amongst the pile. I wondered if any of the girls noticed how many credit cards I had and I also wondered if any of them knew I was a lawyer.
Having gathered everything together, I began talking to one of the girls about the test. I told her I didn't see how I was going to be able to make a collage in half an hour. I told her I often made collages and sometimes it took me days to finish one.
Just then the professor (a woman about 40 years old) walked past me. She seemed in a hurry, but I wanted to ask her a question concerning the pronunciation of the word "or." I quickly scribbled a short sentence on a piece of paper using the word "or" and I asked her to read the sentence so I could see how she pronounced it. I thought the word could either be pronounced like "hour" or like "are." I preferred the "are" pronunciation and I thought it was the one generally used, although I thought in school I had been taught to pronounce the word like "hour."
The professor quickly read the sentence and she indeed pronounced "or" like "are." I asked her about it and she said that at one time people had used the "hour" pronunciation, but now the "are" pronunciation was accepted. Satisfied, I turned and began talking to the girls again. As I talked, I watched my pronunciation and I noticed I seemed to have a particularly affected manner of speaking.
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