Let me explain what the title of this post means …
After my swim this morning, I had a sauna, and after the sauna, I was sitting at the side of the pool cooling down before I took a shower.
Beside me was a swimming instructor. He was giving a lesson to a man in the pool. I wasn’t looking at them, but I could hear them.

The coach told the learner what he wanted the swimmer to do. He finished his instructions and then he counted him down: 3 – 2 – 1 …
I was expecting him to then say “Go!”, but he didn’t. Instead, I heard “and a …”. That didn’t make sense to me, because I was expecting him to say something else after the “a” … and a what? So I looked up, just in time to see the man in the pool put his head under the water. And that’s when I realised that the swimming instructor had said “3–2–1– under”.

In this country, if there’s an “r” at the end of a word, for example car or far, many people don’t say the “r”, and that’s why I confused “under” and “and a”. They both sound similar.
I’m a teacher of English, and if I misheard that, it helps me understand how hard listening can be for learners. When you’re listening, don’t just listen to the words; try to look at the bigger picture of what’s happening at the time.
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