Imagine learning English as a second language. Like how to pronounce the 2 vowels ea placed together, as in great leak heard create English is a language like no other. - ThreadSky

john1400.bsky.social • 69 days ago

Imagine learning English as a second language. Like how to pronounce the 2 vowels ea placed together, as in

great
leak
heard
create

English is a language like no other.

Comments

alaishana.bsky.social•69 days ago

You have to teach and learn English like it was Chinese.

The spelling has fuck all to do with pronunciation.

This is how it's spelled, this is what it means, this is how it sounds.

"Rules" don't work.

eat4thefuture.bsky.social•69 days ago

Yes, my French friend pronounced pint 🍺 as rhyming with lint, and I said I understand why you would think that, but nope.

fatmadt.bsky.social•69 days ago

Good food

machtnichts.bsky.social•68 days ago

Not as bad as my first language, where everything has a gender. Das Fenster, Die Türe, Der Tisch...

john1400.bsky.social•68 days ago

Hah. I started a class for seniors in German. I thought it would be easy since English grew out of Old German. Couldn't be more wrong. They ended the class because so many people dropped out. So many languages grew out of Old German.

machtnichts.bsky.social•68 days ago

I think the best time to learn a new language is before the age of six when the brain is in high knowledge acquisition mode.

john1400.bsky.social•68 days ago

Yes. 6 not 76. But I did learn Japanese easily while living there in my 20's. It slowly faded away after I moved back to the States. It said sayonara to me long ago.

machtnichts.bsky.social•68 days ago

Immersion does work. It's how I learned English. Unfortunately, my first attempt at reading in this language was "The Compleat Works Of Shakespeare" unabridged edition.

john1400.bsky.social•68 days ago

Wow.

lee-in-iowa.bsky.social•69 days ago

Then there’s thought, though, bough, tough, slough….

urocklive1.bsky.social•69 days ago

This is true, but we're still not as bad as the French. Their spelling is insane.

john1400.bsky.social•68 days ago

I read that as their pronunciation changed over centuries, they kept letters in words even tho they no longer pronounced those letters, in deference to the Latin spelling origins.

I remember you from Twitter, good to see you here.

toobiefrank.bsky.social•69 days ago

No, we are worse. French rules are all the same once you learn them. English is impossible to reproduce from writing. There are too many variations away from the rules.

zedthered.bsky.social•69 days ago

English is just white people stealing everyone else's shit
Nothing original about it

toobiefrank.bsky.social•69 days ago

Not really. The root of English was spoken by the Angle invaders. Egg is Norse supplied by Viking invaders, rendezvous is French, brought by invaders. They also brought grammar rules. Since the Anglo-Saxons didn’t invite Vikings and Normans, and lived under them, you could call it borrowing.

zedthered.bsky.social•68 days ago

Borrowing implies you give something back. White people don't give back

jennyfern18.bsky.social•69 days ago

I told the first graders I worked with that English is crazy.

dalareyn.bsky.social•69 days ago

Gree-ate
Lee-ack
Hee-ahrd
Kree-attuh

toobiefrank.bsky.social•69 days ago

There’s actually a simple explanation. It’s not easier for the knowing but, between Chaucer and Shakespeare there was a vowel shift. That’s not unusual, all languages not frozen in print go through pronunciation changes. However, the English standardized their spelling beforehand, then just kept it.

toobiefrank.bsky.social•69 days ago

We all speak modern English but all you have to do is pronounce all the letters in written English and viola, you’re speaking Middle English. Well, not really, but it would sound similar.

joesoap.bsky.social•69 days ago

Millions seem to manage that very well.

john1400.bsky.social•69 days ago

Millions like my grandparents struggled with it all their lives. My grandmother used to say, I speak three languages, Greek, English, and broke English. Lingua Franca between her and her daughters was always Greek.

joesoap.bsky.social•68 days ago

There are always exceptions to everything. Most of the Dutch and Norwegians speak better English than the English.

wildeied.bsky.social•69 days ago

It's the only language that I speak and I don't do too goodly a job at that.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply