[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Pronunciations

[Starling]

Mecki --

"So, can't you guys decide which language to speak, tell the rest of 
the world and make it easier for all of us :-)"

Um, Mecki... hate to break it to you but German's just as bad.  Since I started taking german in seventh grade I have had to deal with Swabian, Bavarian, Viennese, and especially Stierish.  Sure, the germans complain  about we english speakers and all the different versions thereof -- and obivously, completely forget how frustrating it is to try to decipher what the toothless old lady at the farmer's market is saying, as she only speaks very strong dialect and doesn't understand high german...

i have yet to meet a student of any language who doesn't complain about it.  (i once was treated to a 20 minute lecture by a slovenian, who griped about having to learn bosno-croatian in school and how frustrating he'd found it -- of course, i learned later that the two languages are very very closely related and it's nowhere near as tough as he'd made out...)

abbie, tongue firmly in cheek, an expression that does not translate well but is fun to use anyway :)


starling823 at yahoo.com
69% obsessed with HP and loving it
"Ah, music," Dumbledore said, wiping his eyes.  "A magic beyond all we do here!"
          -HP and the Sorcerer's Stone


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: meckelburg at foni.net 
  To: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, 07 May, 2001 3:06 PM
  Subject: [HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Pronunciations


  --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
  Hi Amy!
  we do go nuts, believe me!
  I'm German, but moved to Australia as a 7year- old. so, I learn 
  australian english. Four years later we went back to Germany, I had to 
  learn the complete German grammar etc. as if it were a foreign 
  language (we kids always found excuses not to speak German in 
  Australia). In school, we had English and I thought "Oh, how nice! An 
  easy subject". Our teacher came from the UK and every 2nd sentance to 
  me was "wrong pronunciation". I blocked completely, and it took me So, can't you guys decide which language to speak, tell the rest of 
  the world and make it easier for all of us :-)


  years to believe (and I'm still not sure sometimes (you loose so much 
  of a language if you don't practise regularly)) I can speak "English" 
  - Whatever that is <vbg>

  Mecki

  > Someone, somewhere must have written a thorough history of English 
  > pronunciation.  There is certainly no firm logic to the 
  pronunciation 
  > of English in any country.  People who learn it as a second language 
  > must go nuts.
  > 
  > N.B.:  We don't drop the H in the name Herb, just the plants.  
  > Important to remember if you're talking to a Herb.
  > 
  > Amy Z


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