I'm learning American English with some online classes, and the instructor says that the 2nd vowel 'o' of "second" sounds like "/e/" in everyday conversation (e.g. "Can I talk to you for a second?"). I'm not sure if the symbol "/e/" is right, but I put it just like I heard.
I checked it using some dictionaries, and they say it sounds /ə/, which is familiar to me, without other clear explanations that I want.
Could you please explain to me about it?
+ Let me try to elaborate. What the instructor said is that we commonly know that the 2nd vowel 'o' sounds like a weak 'u' sound(/ə/) as @Michael said. However, He pronounced the word "second" differently, and tell this pronunciation is used in everyday conversation.
He pronounced the 2nd vowel of the word "second" like a weak version of /e/, for example, like from egg, error, etc. If I re-spell this word according to what I heard, I would do "se-kkend".
I'm not sure if this is related, but he said he spent his childhood in California.
I guess these added remarks also might be vague, but I'd appreciate any example to support or disprove this statement.