I have just spent the whole morning teaching a Spanish girl how to say "kettle". What larks we had! We narrowed it to "kittle", which I thought she said rather charmingly, so left it at that. Just 499 999 words left.
I hope you have a high level of patience-I have heard that English is the hardest language to learn! We have so many words with multiple meanings that mean different things in different contexts. For example:
I'm going to read the book.
I already read the book.
I read the red book.
The dove dove into the bushes.
The soldier deserted his desert in the desert.
You can't teach a sow to sow.
Etc. Etc. It goes on and on!
"Kittle" is cute! Lol, some people have such charming accents when they are first learning a new language.
I still vividly remember my trip to Britain...thankfully British English and American English are almost the same, so I didn't need to learn many new words. ( Though it did take me a moment to realize that a "que" was a line, and that when someone said I should "que-up" they meant I should stand in line. )
Ah yes, she didn't speak any English at all, so I had to make some linguistic "wriggle-space" to get underway, basically teach her a basic vocabulary without having any words to start with. There are no easy ways to do this. Sadly we didn't get too far :(
I notice Americans rhyme Dove and Dove, whereas in Britain the bird rhymes with Love.
The bird rhymes with Love here too. At least, my family always prounounced it that way. But I *have* heard it pronounced the other way...there are a ton of different accents out there that are only marginally different in subtle inflections like that. On the whole, most Pacific Northwesterners, like me, pronounce it to rhyme with Love. Midwesterners typically pronounce it the other way, and have this weird ( at least to me ) habit of calling windows "winders" and a sink a "zink".
Funny how language changes and evolves across time and distance.
I wonder how English will sound 100 years from now?
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I hope you have a high level of patience-I have heard that English is the hardest language to learn! We have so many words with multiple meanings that mean different things in different contexts. For example:
I'm going to read the book.
I already read the book.
I read the red book.
The dove dove into the bushes.
The soldier deserted his desert in the desert.
You can't teach a sow to sow.
Etc. Etc. It goes on and on!
"Kittle" is cute! Lol, some people have such charming accents when they are first learning a new language.
I still vividly remember my trip to Britain...thankfully British English and American English are almost the same, so I didn't need to learn many new words. ( Though it did take me a moment to realize that a "que" was a line, and that when someone said I should "que-up" they meant I should stand in line. )
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I notice Americans rhyme Dove and Dove, whereas in Britain the bird rhymes with Love.
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Funny how language changes and evolves across time and distance.
I wonder how English will sound 100 years from now?
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