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Via Diva Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4234 days ago 1109 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek
| Message 9 of 73 07 November 2013 at 4:57pm | IP Logged |
The actual reason of why I was hating English in school is that I didn't really knew why do I need to struggle and read some words in weird Latin alphabet, to learn its tricky pronunciation and to do some unclear tasks from textbook.
My feelings about English has been changed long time ago, but the target of "I know English" claim do not seems to be really any closer. My ears set up on my native Russian or language with clear pronunciation like German. My mind is Russian regardless of how much time per day I spend thinking English.
I'm glad to have Russian as my native, but English would be much more useful. And I do think that it'll be very hard to learn it well enough in my present conditions. If once I am to leave the country, first days in English-speaking society would be hell of a challenge to me, I know that. And there is no guarantee of establishing some decent level even in English-speaking country.
I feel somewhat depressed when it comes to English materials. There are so many of them, I should understand them, they suit my level, but there is always something I don't know, forget... To have this problem every single time when it comes to something English is... frustrating. And there is simply no solution for that.
Edited by Via Diva on 07 November 2013 at 4:59pm
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| Papashaw Newbie Australia Joined 4103 days ago 28 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin
| Message 10 of 73 07 November 2013 at 5:06pm | IP Logged |
How would you reckon that English has tricky pronunciation? It has fewer vowels than German but or course more
diphthongs, but the consonants are of equal number. German could have more in common with Russian
pronunciation, though. Is that it? Something do to with stress or the dental fricatives?
Edited by Papashaw on 07 November 2013 at 5:07pm
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| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4707 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish
| Message 11 of 73 07 November 2013 at 5:09pm | IP Logged |
Try writing and then spelling it.
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| Halfdan Newbie Canada Joined 4184 days ago 13 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Danish, Mandarin, French
| Message 12 of 73 07 November 2013 at 5:11pm | IP Logged |
It doesn't mean that the pronunciation is difficult, just the correlation between pronunciation and orthography.
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| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4707 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish
| Message 13 of 73 07 November 2013 at 5:15pm | IP Logged |
Halfdan wrote:
It doesn't mean that the pronunciation is difficult, just the
correlation between pronunciation and orthography. |
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The pronunciation is nothing to scoff at either - the dental fricatives, stress, vowels,
glides, aspirations, and more make it quite a tricksy thing to conquer, especially
because you cannot rely on the orthography to point out what is what.
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| Via Diva Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4234 days ago 1109 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek
| Message 14 of 73 07 November 2013 at 5:16pm | IP Logged |
Papashaw, one single th could be just enough for fussing around. But we were also taught not to "deafen" consonants (not to pronounce [t] instead of [d]), forget about brand Russian [x] replacing it with barely heard [h] and just the same for our rolled [r]. So, yes, pronunciation were, is and will be tricky for me.
For example, for me it's very hard to make difference between long and short vowel when speaking. This problem, of course, remains in German, but I do not need to learn it in order to survive. Plus, German pronunciation is indeed much closer to Russian than that of English.
Edited by Via Diva on 07 November 2013 at 5:16pm
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| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4636 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin
| Message 15 of 73 07 November 2013 at 5:48pm | IP Logged |
I love having English as my native tongue. I can't imagine what it must be like to learn it considering tricky words like "perfect" as an adjective and verb are pronounced differently, to name one example out of thousands. Not to mention all of our slang and made up words.
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| Papashaw Newbie Australia Joined 4103 days ago 28 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin
| Message 16 of 73 07 November 2013 at 6:01pm | IP Logged |
All languages are tricky, but you do have a point. If you learn English natively then you can spend your time
learning what you want to know instead of having to learn English. But a majority paint a bullseye around the
bullethole and claim English was chosen for simplicity. A case of sour grapes.
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