moonlight said:I used to just drop the "r" sound entirely. Instead of my tongue actually rolling, it would just stay lazy... So it sounded like "Mary is going to go rrrrhonit rrrrakows and Peter's ears." 🙄
I saw a speech therapist as a kid and learned how to say Robert, but I could never actually weave it into real sentences... My attempts sounded roughly like this: "Marrrrrrin is going to rrrrhonit rrrrakows and Peter's ears." Going to therapy twice a week was too much for my stomach and my mom's patience, so we gave up. By the time I hit college at 18, I was still "talking" like that, and everyone thought it was "sooo cute and sweet," so I didn't really care. Until I realized some people don't take me seriously. 😢 Someone made a joke about it once, and looking back, I realized that’s how a lot of people view anyone with a speech impediment. Unprofessional, immature, irresponsible. 😢 I couldn't let myself be that person.
Shout out to my "boss Elvis" who started teasing me, and out of pure spite, I started over-emphasizing every single R in every word. Slowly, those extra Rs smoothed out until they were almost normal... I didn't even notice. It was just people who hadn't seen me in a while who picked up on it. Nowadays, even experts trained to spot these things—like psychologists during job interviews—don't notice unless I bring it up... 🙂 IF I bring it up. 😁
Jesus 😲 sorry, but this is the dumbest thing I've heard...
If you feel like people don't take you seriously, that's on you.
I pronounce my R's from the throat... kind of like the French or Germans, and it never bothered me because I never viewed it as a defect.
It all comes down to how a kid mimics the R sounds they hear from adults... the ear-to-brain connection... then the pronunciation.
Someone called it a flaw... I don't see it that way. Different cultures pronounce certain sounds differently. Sure, it's not common for an American to sound like a German or a Frenchman, but if it doesn't cause actual problems, why stress over it?