I remember teaching kids English one time. During my first week, I heard children pronouncing fork as [fake] or [ferk], property as [prop-ty], and water as [wora].

I'd blink twice everything I ask a child to read a comprehensive passage or words on the board.

One day, I thought that I had enough, so I spent one full period (that's 40 minutes) correcting so many mispronounced words, including the wora and prop-ty they say through their nose just to sound posh.

I didn't know that the headmistress had overheard my class chorusing how to pronounce water the natural way. She waited until I was done, then invited me to her office.

She explained that parents pay huge sum of money there so their children can speak like the original natives. She asked me to teach them how to speak impeccable English.

I didn't have an issue with that. The only issue I had was that her idea of "impeccable English" was speaking those funny sounds in the name of phonetics. I resigned when I couldn't bear it anymore. I haven't gotten over that nightmare. Their wonderful sounds still haunt me in my sleep.