We are halfway through teaching our phonetics course. We
have 35 students who are taking phonetics and they seem to be doing well for
the most part. Some are having struggles saying and hearing certain sounds, but
that is to be expected.
It is amazing how making a phonetic mistake when speaking
another language can create a world of confusion. One of my coworkers on staff
here is from Brazil. He speaks English well, but he does speak it with a
Brazilian-Portuguese accent. Once you get used to his accent, you can understand
him quite well. But sometimes he might say something which is not quite
understandable. For instance, he will often enunciate the vowel “a” (as in bat)
when he really means to say the vowel “e” (as in bet). He also has a tendency
to go voiceless at the end of words. As a result, when he tries to say a word
like “logs” it will come out “locks.” Once you know those tendencies, you can
usually figure out what he really meant to say when things don’t quite sound
right in his pronunciation of English.
He told me of an experience that he had with an English
speaking partner who did not know those tendencies with his accent. My
Brazilian friend had just arrived in country and a very helpful American
coworker decided to help him out by driving him to various stores to fill his
wife’s shopping list. They had most of the groceries purchased and were down to
the last item on the list. My Brazilian friend told the American that his wife
needed some eggs. The American said that he knew right where to get that. So
they got in the car and headed to another part of town. My Brazilian friend was
somewhat puzzled why they could not buy the eggs where they bought the rest of
the groceries. They pulled up to a hardware store and walked in. Then the
American told the clerk that his friend here needed to buy an “axe.” Well, I
guess “eggs” and “axe” are somewhat close in pronunciation.
Phonetics is definitely an important tool for anyone
learning another language.
Our Spring semester is beginning to wind down. As we near
the end, motivation has a tendency to decline. Both our teachers and students need
the tenacity and determination to stay strong to the end.
Bob
