Tutor, Tudor… Anime… and Why Reading Still Matters
Here’s a small confession.
For years, I thought “Tudor mystery” meant… a mystery involving tutors.
Teachers. Medieval royalty getting lessons. Murder happening somewhere between math homework and court etiquette.
It made sense in my head, so I never questioned it. After all, I fantasized about doing away with my tutors all the time when I was a teen, so if someone made a bunch of mysteries involving tutors getting murdered, tutors solving murders, tutors committing murders- hey, all the more power to them :)
Turns out, I was wrong.
It’s Tudor mystery—as in the Tudor dynasty of England.
Henry VIII. Elizabeth I. Court intrigue, spies, executions, and political backstabbing.
The funny part?
I didn’t misread it.
I heard it.
Because every single time, my screen reader calmly said “tutor mystery”, and my brain filled in the blanks. I assumed I knew what it meant… and that assumption stuck around for years.
And this wasn’t the first time.
Image:The back of a card/booklet is shown upright on the carpet. It has a dark purple-to-black background with Chinese text and the English words “SNAIL” and “HELL” near the top.
In the upper half there are three promotional images of anime-style figurines (each marked “1/12”):
A blonde girl figure with a cross-like weapon
A white-haired girl figure in a black outfit with bunny ears
A blue-toned/icy-looking character image
Mid-lower area has a section titled “蜗之壳Online Store” followed by four numbered lines (01 to 04) of Chinese text. To the right is a large circular QR-style code with a red square in the center containing the Chinese character “蜗”, and a small green WeChat-style icon.
Along the bottom edge are three standard black-and-white QR codes and some small text including “SnailShell” and “@weizhike”.
[
]
The “Anime” Incident
This one still sneaks up on me.
For years—and I mean years—I pronounced anime as “uh-NIME.”
Rhymes with time.
Why?
Because that’s how my screen reader said it.
It wasn’t until one day, mid-conversation, casually talking about shows I loved, when a friend burst out laughing:
“What the fuck? You say you love anime, you watch anime… and you call it uh-NIME??”
Cue record scratch.
Cue embarrassment.
Cue realization.
Even now, knowing it’s properly pronounced “ah-ni-meh,” old habits still creep out when I’m not thinking. Years of hearing a word one way doesn’t just vanish overnight.
Again—I wasn’t wrong because I was careless.
I was wrong because I never heard people say that word.
Image: Square figure box with a light purple gradient background. Front artwork shows an anime-style young man with spiky black hair holding a sword horizontally in both hands, wearing a black robe-like outfit with a light gray/white upper section.
Logos and text on the front include BANDAI NAMCO, a blue BANDAI logo, the “Yu Yu Hakusho” title logo, “DXF,” and “30th Anniversary.”
When Audio Replaces Literacy
I’ve noticed something over the years in the blind community.
More and more blind folks are pulling away from learning Braille.
And on the surface, it makes sense:
- Braille books are bulky
- Braille materials are expensive to produce
- Digital text is instant
- Screen readers and AI will read anything out loud
So the logic becomes:
“Why bother learning Braille when technology can just read everything to me?”
Image:An orange tabby cat with a white muzzle is lying with its head resting on an open braille book. The cat’s eyes are mostly closed, and its whiskers are spread forward. The braille pages are thick and cream-colored, with raised dot patterns across both visible pages.
[
]
But here’s the problem.
Listening is not the same as reading.
When language only comes through audio:
- Homophones blur together
- Spellings disappear
- Context fills in gaps whether it’s right or wrong
- Misunderstandings quietly fossilize
Tutor becomes Tudor.
Anime becomes uh-NIME.
And nobody corrects you—until they do.
Image: An open braille book with thick, cream-colored pages on a wooden surface. Both visible pages are filled with raised braille dots in dense lines. There’s a large shadow across the upper middle portion of the top page, and the paper curves upward slightly near the center fold.
[
]
The Uncomfortable Truth
If blind people stop learning to read—actually read—there’s a very real risk we don’t like to talk about:
We may end up with a generation of blind people who are functionally illiterate.
Not unintelligent.
Not incapable.
Just missing direct access to the structure of language.
- They won't know "their" from "there" from "they're."
- Or that "sea" and "see" and "C" are not the same.
- Or that "whores" and a "horse" are completely different.
- How about "plane" verses "plain."
And the scariest part?
You don’t even know what you don’t know—because it sounds right.
Braille Isn’t Old-Fashioned. It’s Precision.
Braille isn’t nostalgia.
It’s ownership.
It gives you:
- Spelling
- Word boundaries
- Visual structure
- The ability to question a word instead of assuming it
Audio, screen readers, and AI are incredible tools—and I use them daily.
But tools should support literacy, not quietly replace it.
Because words that sound the same can mean wildly different things.
And sometimes, the difference matters more than we realize.
BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT TOOTER'S A WORD TOO :)
A Small Laugh, A Big Lesson
So yeah—this all started with me misunderstanding Tudor mystery… and getting roasted over how I said anime.
Funny? Absolutely.
Embarrassing? A little.
Important? Very.
Words matter.
How we access them matters even more.
For more writing, music, disability culture, and tactile art, visit:
👉 https://johnnytiger.com
👉 https://tigertactile.com
Read when you can.
Listen when you need to.
But don’t give up the power of knowing exactly what a word is.
#BlindLife
#BrailleMatters
#Accessibility
#DisabilityAwareness
#AssistiveTech
#Literacy
#WordsMatter
#BlindCulture
#JohnnyTiger
Comments
Post a Comment