My language is the most difficult (Philological Room) Language Learning Forum

My language is the most difficult
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Language Learning Forum : Philological Room

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Hencke
Tetraglot
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Spain
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Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, English^C2, Spanish
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Message 57 of 67

21 April 2006 at 1:00pm | IP Logged

I could be wrong but I seem to remember reading that both tongue positions occur, depending on what part of the English-speaking world you are from.
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M-Squared
Senior Member
United States
Joined 7139 days ago
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Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

Message 58 of 67

21 April 2006 at 6:35pm | IP Logged

fanatic wrote:

TDC wrote:

The "th" sound isn't all that difficult to
make if you stick your tongue out. My students (Chinese last year, and
Russian this year) have usually made this sound wrong, then I say stick
your tongue out, and show them. Then they all laugh. Then they try to
say th, and they do it just the same. So I force them to stick their
tongues out and when they do it that way they get it right almost every
single time on the first try. But then 10 minutes later their tongues are
back in their mouths again. I don't know...I think it's just a cultural thing
about sticking your tongue out that impedes this...

When I was in Germany I heard people say you make the TH sound by
putting your tongue out between your teeth. I was surprised because I
make the sound with my tongue behind my top teeth. The tip of my
tongue is almost touching the roof of my mouth behind my teeth. My wife
told me that I am not making the sound correctly if that is the case but no
one has ever commented that I make the sound differently. When I hear
recordings of my voice my Th's sound normal to me.

How do other native English speakers on the forum make the Th sound?
Do you put your tongue out between your teeth, or make the sound like
me, or do you make it some other way?

I have my tongue between my teeth. I tried it your way. I can sort of make
the sound, but it is quite odd (to me). "th" with your tongue between
your teeth seems the most natural to me.

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Paul
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 7121 days ago
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Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, German
Studies: Italian

Message 59 of 67

25 April 2006 at 4:15pm | IP Logged

Tongue between teeth, without a doubt. Personally this is
one of my favourite sounds of the english language.

I really don't understand why people find this so difficult either.
Scandinavian and Dutch speakers seem to be able to learn this perfectly.
French-speakers are without a doubt the worst at this, which i find
frustrating because i have learned to speak with an almost flawless french
accent. They just don't seem bothered with learning english vowels and
stress, and seem content to use the sounds of their own language rather
than learning new ones.

Edited by Paul on 25 April 2006 at 4:25pm
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Paul
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 7121 days ago
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Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, German
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Message 60 of 67

25 April 2006 at 4:24pm | IP Logged

[/QUOTE]

Edited by Paul on 25 April 2006 at 4:24pm
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allesgeht08
Diglot
Groupie
United States
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Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Russian

Message 61 of 67

16 June 2006 at 1:04pm | IP Logged

Nephilim wrote:

I know many English people who don't even know how many tenses their language has, or how to form grammatical sentences, or how to spell correctly. It may be argued that as they are native speakers they don't need to know these things, but I disagree with this totally.

Lets say a little boy in England begins to speak and use his language at the age of two. As he grows up, he will think, speak, read, write and listen to this language for something like 16 hours a day. So, by the time he is 20 years old he will have been exposed to 105,120 hours of English. You'd think, wouldn't you, after that much exposure the person would have learned how to spell and write good grammatical senses. What on earth do we do with our time?

I've noticed that, too, and I really don't understand why people can't pick up spelling. If you can read, then you should learn to write. It's really that simple.
But as far as not knowing the grammar stuff, I think a lot of that just has to do with the way you learn your first language versus every other one you pick up. You learn your mother tongue very naturally, just through listening and eventually beginning to comprehend. You don't need to know case and tense names or why you sometimes say "wer" and sometimes "wen" and sometimes "wem," as long as you do.
But once you start learning languages in school, teachers need shortcuts. You CAN'T be exposed to the language 24/7, so they tell you the "rules", hoping to help you learn more quickly. Classroom teaching takes a less practical approach than natual learning. But htat doesn't mean that natural learning is inferior. Look at the Pimsleur programs. All that is (all i've seen in the ones I've done, anyway) is a conversation. They don't stop mid-sentence to point out the shift to dative case, yet the listener will still learn the language.
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patlajan
Triglot
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United States
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Speaks: English*, Spanish, Turkish
Studies: German, Mandarin, French

Message 62 of 67

27 July 2006 at 10:12pm | IP Logged

In Turkey I know the th sounds in english gave the students I worked with fits. Just as the Chinese have serious problems with both english sounds and basic structures. Articles, plurals and negative constructions stand out as problem areas. Can they be understood - most of the time - but it's a long way from true mastery of the language. Is English especially hard? I don't think so, but the spelling issue is significant.
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hamiltonguyo
Newbie
Canada
Joined 6699 days ago
21 posts - 21 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, Latin, French

Message 63 of 67

27 July 2006 at 11:08pm | IP Logged

i hate english spelling.

neither the simplified lazy american way nor the Proper British way are
either so why not just standardize it to the British spelling and make it
easier so everyone has to learn only one way.

Personally i'm tired of MS Word telling me "colour" should be spelt "color"

grrrrrr
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Sir Nigel
Senior Member
United States
Joined 7104 days ago
1126 posts - 1102 votes

2 sounds

Message 64 of 67

28 July 2006 at 1:48pm | IP Logged

You can fix that by choosing Tools > Language > Set Language, then select from the available Englishes.

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