Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Language School




It is essential to be able to speak the language to communicate love and respect.

So, No.  We've not mastered Bangla (the language of Bangladesh).  I can tell you that this says "Bangladesh", but what we're really learning right now is the 'phonology' - meaning the sounds of languages.  English uses 44 different sounds, some of which are not used in other languages and many sounds in other languages are not found in English.  This will help us learn how to learn Bangla.

   At times this feels kinds of silly; you sit there with eight other adults making "fff" sounds then "vvv" sounds, then learning what a glottal stop is.  It sounds like it should be some questionable sound deep in the throat, something you should say "excuse me" after doing.  Really, it's normal:  I'm not sure I can describe what it is but you do it when you say the 'e' in 'eat'.

We were strictly instructed to take this seriously (and we all made very long faces). Then we practiced making sounds that sounded vaguely like a chipmunk learning swahili followed by sounds like Kermit the Frog gargling.  

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