The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 09

[NuclearFairy]

That's really amazing. You have almost a super power in my book.

Yeah, it's the super power of listening really really hard. Also, I had a terrific speech therapist who taught me really well.

Edit: I know it's not as simple as listening really hard. Most people don't have the need to hear the missing sounds by hearing how they affect the sounds I could hear, and so won't be able to develop this ability. Just like most sighted people can't map out someones face with their finger tips.

 

[dmallord]

Ah, I forget sometimes that most people are not trained as small children to tell the difference between a soft c and an s. The difference being, without my hearing aids, I can hear one and not the other.

Still funny that the word is pronounced lazor though.

Hearing aids.... I spent the week without them again. No wonder everybody keeps repeating things to me. Not one said, put them on!

 

[MrPixel]

Hearing aids.... I spent the week without them again. No wonder everybody keeps repeating things to me. Not one said, put them on!

I gave up on nagging my wife to put hers on. She refuses to understand that she is as deaf as she has become lately. She's at that phase where she responds to things she thinks I've said which are in the "How did you get that out of what I just said?" category.

It's hell getting old, DM, you know that for sure. But beats the alternative!

 

[Rustyoznail]

Ah, I forget sometimes that most people are not trained as small children to tell the difference between a soft c and an s. The difference being, without my hearing aids, I can hear one and not the other.

Still funny that the word is pronounced lazor though.

But then it's all in the pronunciation - around here it's layz-u (u as in up).

Isn't English wonderful?

 

[dmallord]

I gave up on nagging my wife to put hers on. She refuses to understand that she is as deaf as she has become lately. She's at that phase where she responds to things she thinks I've said which are in the "How did you get that out of what I just said?" category.

It's hell getting old, DM, you know that for sure. But beats the alternative!

Being a hermit, almost 87, I didn't realize that my hearing was on the wane. It was after my last hospital stay, and the nurses started home hospice for me. The head nurse picked it up the first day through the door. My TV was way too loud for her. Off to the audiologist she carted me, and yeah, I had over thirty percent loss in both ears.

I still go without them, but with a full-time housekeeper now, I get reminded more often. At first, she was too shy to speak about it, but lately... she has that near spousal response mode!

 

[AloneTooLong]

at one point in time I taught a free "English as a Second Language" class to adults. It didn't matter what their current language was, I was to teach them English (American English with a Texas accent!), I always told them it was one of the most difficult languages to learn; read (same spelling two different ways to pronounce and two different meanings), reed, red; we worked a lot on spelling and then pronunciation, and meaning/definition also.

 

[TheRedLantern]

at one point in time I taught a free "English as a Second Language" class to adults. It didn't matter what their current language was, I was to teach them English (American English with a Texas accent!), I always told them it was one of the most difficult languages to learn; read (same spelling two different ways to pronounce and two different meanings), reed, red; we worked a lot on spelling and then pronunciation, and meaning/definition also.

It never fails. Whenever I finish a story with a theme or an idea behind it, someone posts to AH or Story Ideas and mentions it.

Not 8 hours ago, I wrapped up the second draft of a story I'm calling "Language Exchange", which is when two people learning each other's language get together and practice speaking. listening, reading, and writing with a native speaker. They're a great tool for learning languages, but they also work here because they're basically a series of dates but without the pressure of actually dating, so they're the kind of thing where if an attraction between the two people is possible, language exchanges (regularly getting together for coffee or lunch and just talking to someone and really listening to what they have to say) will let that flourish.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Another deafie graduate of speech therapists here - yes, it explains my obsession with different accents in my characters. I originally wanted to study linguistics, but at the time you needed to do way more listening analysis than I and the tech of the time could cope with.

In England English, (not speaking for the Scots etc who are often different!), sent, cent and scent are homophones. But Mary, merry and marry have very different vowels. Grace and grass differ in the vowel sound but the consonant is essentially the same, s rather than graze.

Sometimes I must look up the distribution of Americans who pronounce vase to rhyme with face instead of vaahz. I got traumatised by Ernie off Sesame Street going round crying "I broke my face!"

 

[TheLobster]

at one point in time I taught a free "English as a Second Language" class to adults. It didn't matter what their current language was, I was to teach them English (American English with a Texas accent!), I always told them it was one of the most difficult languages to learn; read (same spelling two different ways to pronounce and two different meanings), reed, red; we worked a lot on spelling and then pronunciation, and meaning/definition also.

English is hard. It can be learned through tough thorough thought, though.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

at one point in time I taught a free "English as a Second Language" class to adults. It didn't matter what their current language was, I was to teach them English (American English with a Texas accent!),

When my language exchange partner came over, her English was pretty good but a bunch of words were unintelligible. It was a bizarre sort of accent.

Then I went to stay with her, and all became clear - their English teacher was from Texas, and Texan-German accents sound well weird in London. They rapidly improved, but the guy was a right tosser and spent half the lessons 'correcting' the English of me and my UK friends!

English vowels may be random and mad, but at least in the UK, if in doubt just use a schwa (the 'uh' sound of an unstressed vowel) and it'll sound like a UK dialect from somewhere. Particularly useful for place names in London!

 

[TheLobster]

English vowels may be random and mad, but at least in the UK, if in doubt just use a schwa (the 'uh' sound of an unstressed vowel) and it'll sound like a UK dialect from somewhere. Particularly useful for place names in London!

Sadly doesn't work for names like Marylebone and Gloucester, where you just straight up don't pronounce some vowel letters at all, not even as a dignified grunt.

 

[sirhugs]

English is hard. It can be learned through tough thorough thought, though.

I thought the best way to learn a language was to sleep with a speaker of the language

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

And yet Kuntz is a fairly common name.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

read (same spelling two different ways to pronounce and two different meanings), reed, red; we worked a lot on spelling and then pronunciation, and meaning/definition also.

There is a speed read need for the head to heed.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Also Phuket isn't pronounced quite 'that' way.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Meanwhile ... a week or so of upper 40s/upper 60s and mostly dry with a few possible showers.

My kinda weather.

 

[Statius]

Another deafie graduate of speech therapists here - yes, it explains my obsession with different accents in my characters. I originally wanted to study linguistics, but at the time you needed to do way more listening analysis than I and the tech of the time could cope with.

In England English, (not speaking for the Scots etc who are often different!), sent, cent and scent are homophones. But Mary, merry and marry have very different vowels. Grace and grass differ in the vowel sound but the consonant is essentially the same, s rather than graze.

Sometimes I must look up the distribution of Americans who pronounce vase to rhyme with face instead of vaahz. I got traumatised by Ernie off Sesame Street going round crying "I broke my face!"

I call American English Amerispeak and yes I'm from the US.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Sadly doesn't work for names like Marylebone and Gloucester, where you just straight up don't pronounce some vowel letters at all, not even as a dignified grunt.

Sure you don't normally pronounce the first E in Gloucester, though Mare-l'b'n is now more common than the old geezer Mare-b'n or even the dark L (in the back of the throat) version where mare-l is one syllable, but if you do say muh-luh-buhn or Gluh-suh-stuh, you'll be understood. Probably as a drunk Scouser with a speech impediment, but understood.

Particularly helpful if going to Loughborough or Glasgow.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

You see Loughborough.

I see Lowbrow or maybe Lowboro.

 

[TheLobster]

muh-luh-buhn

That’s how I was taught to pronounce it, by a coworker who caught my clumsy attempt at uttering it in the most straightforward way:

 

[Candy_Kane54]

I took this picture yesterday ...
https://64.media.tumblr.com/68f6a88.../dad9213928727c241a88a1252b7f4caad72153cb.jpg

 

[MillieDynamite]

Morning, Literoticers, how's tricks, SUP wit ya, what's shaking, Mr. Bacon? Fresh French roast, in the French press, pour a mug, pull up a seat, and stay for four or five minutes. I gots ta get back to writing after that!

 

[Duleigh]

I took this picture yesterday ...
https://64.media.tumblr.com/68f6a88.../dad9213928727c241a88a1252b7f4caad72153cb.jpg

That is beautiful! Where is that? It kind of reminds me of Letchworth.

 

[MillieDynamite]

New York State Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation (.gov)

Taughannock Falls plunges 215 feet past rocky cliffs that tower nearly 400 feet above the gorge.

That is beautiful! Where is that? It kind of reminds me of Letchworth.

 

[MillieDynamite]

And now my cup, which didn't quite runneth over, is empty and must return to my labors. Later Literoticaers.