Respectfully, It Was Ve-Hi-Cle!
I studied in Ukambani; the soil was red, our heads were cleanly shaven and to us, erasers were rubbers. The ‘h’s’ in every word were very articulately pronounced and where there was no ‘h’ we would generously add one. I was one of the most well spoken people in my primary school so it wouldn’t come as a surprise that when I transitioned to high school, I would always offer to read passages aloud in front of the class during our English lessons. I liked how words rolled off my tongue or better yet, I just enjoyed listening to myself speak. This one time however, I encountered the word ‘vehicle’. Now, you must note that I was trained to pronounce every single syllable in a word, so I did exactly that. I read the word as ‘ve-hi-cle’ keen to really highlight the ‘hi’ in vehicle. The class burst out laughing. I didn’t get what the joke was but I remember how I felt after. Long after the lesson was over and the joke had died down. Long after we had graduated high school. Since then, I h...