One of my dear students, Mizuki, shook her head in resignation today and stated "English is crazy business" (a phrase learned from yours truly). She had tried unsuccessfully to find the meaning of the word "creu" in her electronic dictionary. "Creu" is how she heard the word - which turned out to be "clue". Despite the Japanese R/L distinction (or lack thereof), there is still the issue of spelling the sound "oo" - is it "ew", "ue", "oo", "u" or something else?
This situation led to me to search online for electronic dictionaries that accept phonetic spelling. I followed a tangent, as I usually do when surfing the internets, and found what purports to be the original version of the somewhat-known poem about the chaos of English spelling and pronunciation.
Four yer paruzil: The Chaos
1 comment:
Sounds like Akiko, the Japanese exchange student who visited the other day. She was playing with our cat, Jim. When asked if she had a pet, she said, "Yes.
A dog."
"What is your dog's name?"
"Ruke."
"Ruke, eh? Interesting. What does 'Ruke' mean in Japanese?"
Puzzled look from Akiko. "Ruke Skywalker."
TOF
Post a Comment