[etni] Fw: re: The complexities of the English language

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sharon peress" <s_peress@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: The complexities of the English language


Hi Henry,
Well, I teach English to lots of kids (private lessons) and in reply to your
question, yes, some probably do get discouraged by the difficulty of
English, the inconsistencies, etc. But I try to be humorous about it. For
example, regarding unpronounced letters (such as the W in "answer"), I tell
them that that's just the way it is, and that it is like the letter "peh"
(that's a Hebrew letter) in the word "Lalechet" (i.e. a joke). And I tell
them that yes, English is not easy but it is probably a heck of a lot easier
than learning a language such as Chinese, where a picture (pictogram?) can
mean "My brother Bob needs to buy this fish" but drawn slightly differently
may mean "Is this our picnic table?"  Or German, with impossibly long words.
So, everything is relative, right? Mainly I stress that difficult or not,
English is extremely important and they had better try to master it, (and
that they are lucky to be getting private lessons!)

Yes, there are similar inconsistencies or difficulties in Hebrew, but if it
is their native language, then they are not aware of them, usually.

Some kids get discouraged, and some don't. The "smarter" ones view the
difficulties of English as a challenge. As you surely know, there are people
out there who have mastered 4, 5, 6 or more completely different languages.

All the best,
Sharon Peress
Tel Aviv


Henry wrote:
> I thank you for the most interesting responses to my recent query
> regarding
> the inconsistencies in the English language.
>
> However, I am still curious to know whether students learning the English
> language are at all discouraged, once they become aware of the many
> inconsistencies in the pronunciation of the language.
>
> Also, I was wondering whether there are any examples at all in the Hebrew
> language of similar inconsistencies.
>
> I enclose some of the more interesting responses that I received. However,
> let me add a warning. It will take you a long time to read all the poems.
> So
> you have hereby been warned...
>
> http://www.etni.org/poems_English_spelling.doc


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