This must be the single most annyoing thing in the entire world....

[SnoopDog]

WARNING ! RANT AHEAD !


Some of you may know that I'm a student of American Studies.

And even though it's great fun and really interesting, this semester I got one class however which will drive me crazy and will probably make me fail my entire studies ........ ENGLISH PHONETICS. How f-ed up is that? Not only do I have to learn about the theories behind it (cardinal-vowel-systems, system of phonemes, system of syllabels, etc.), I laos have to learn this stupid transcription symbols, have to transcribe stuff and in the end have to pass the test AND pass an oral exam in which my articulation will be tested.

OH MY GOD. Right now I'm trying to learn all those transcription symbols for vowels and the GenAm particularities, and I think this will haunt me in my sleep. Dipthongs, jeeze

Sorry about this rant, but it really sucks when you try to distinguish the vowels in pear, peer, poor, etc.


Snoopy, frustrated Beagle

 

[Selena_Kitt]

That's insane. I dropped out of advanced college grammar. Couldn't diagram a sentence to save my life. Thankfully I could replace it with something else... so I got a BA in English without having to take grammar ...

Good luck, doggie...

 

[3113]

Some of you may know that I'm a student of American Studies.

I sympathize completely. I once took a similar class and Boring doesn't begin to describe it. It's the sort of class where students think about putting guns to their heads to escape yet another lecture on dipthongs. The teachers could fall dead and no one would notice the difference.

But now you've got me really curious....just what does a student of American Studies learn? And are we talking all the "Americas" North and South or just U.S.A.?

 

[Munachi]

well... on the other hand... most studies have their more boring and more interesting parts - and they are boring to some and interesting to others. i must say, i am not a big fan of phonetics either, though i know people who love it... and i think if i had the right teacher i could start getting more interested. so anyway, you'll survive... and actually, for language learning phonetics can be a very good basis. according to some people, anyone can learn to speak any language accent free (though maybe not without mistakes?) if they do it via a concious phonetic approach, instead of just hearing (which only works for some people - since a lot of your accent has to do with hearing wrongly, rather than being unable to pronounce)... so if you know how to be aware of what every part of your mouth etc. has to do while producing a certain sound, you could learn that sound. etc. anyway. sorry. i am starting to think now i would like some english phonetics classes, so i would know what i should work on.

 

[glynndah]

In the words of Marty Feldman, "It could be worse." When I took Voice and Phonetics in college, my professor was the mother of a former boyfriend. She seemed to spend the entire semester scowling at me while I avoided making eye contact. One word of advice, if you have to transcribe a passage and then read it aloud to the class as I did, it's a lot easier to use a selection you're already familiar with.
Good Luck!

 

[BlackShanglan]

This must be the single most annyoing thing in the entire world....

I think you'll find that's Graham Norton.