Day 8: the pronunciation poem
Hi everyone!
How do you feel after passing the one-week mark? Are you settling into a routine? Tell us in the comments about how you have incorporated this challenge into your daily life.
Today's the day that the mystery of the pronunciation lists is revealed. There is this fiendish pronunciation poem that highlights the worst part of English pronunciation: the exceptions to the most useful of all findings for a learner of English--patterns. What happens when we have internalised a pattern of spelling-pronunciation and then--oh no--we find a word that doesn't follow it?
"It's just a pattern", we tell ourselves, "it's not a rule". Oh well, we'll get over it. We write it down and try to learn it, cursing the English language mildly. We try to brush it off, but the truth is that it's frustrating. And the only antidote against that frustration is humour, and a sense of community that comes from acknowledging that even native speakers struggle with this. So here's the key:
If somebody else, if many people, in fact, have gone through this same frustration, and they tell us so with a pinch of humour, at least the frustration will go away. And hopefully,too, it will help us remember some of these puzzling pronunciations we sometimes come across.
So find here our beloved poem, a classic among learners of English: The Chaos by Dr. Gerald Nolst Trenité (1870). With the help of the words in the previous challenges:
- Recite the poem. A big clue to pronunciation is the fact that it rhymes (yay!)
- Underline or write down the words you're not sure of.
- Look them up in an online dictionary or listen to the poem here.
- Come back here to tell us of your frustrations or funny findings or just to tell us how it went! It'll brings us together in learning.
Enjoy!
How do you feel after passing the one-week mark? Are you settling into a routine? Tell us in the comments about how you have incorporated this challenge into your daily life.
Today's the day that the mystery of the pronunciation lists is revealed. There is this fiendish pronunciation poem that highlights the worst part of English pronunciation: the exceptions to the most useful of all findings for a learner of English--patterns. What happens when we have internalised a pattern of spelling-pronunciation and then--oh no--we find a word that doesn't follow it?
"It's just a pattern", we tell ourselves, "it's not a rule". Oh well, we'll get over it. We write it down and try to learn it, cursing the English language mildly. We try to brush it off, but the truth is that it's frustrating. And the only antidote against that frustration is humour, and a sense of community that comes from acknowledging that even native speakers struggle with this. So here's the key:
If somebody else, if many people, in fact, have gone through this same frustration, and they tell us so with a pinch of humour, at least the frustration will go away. And hopefully,too, it will help us remember some of these puzzling pronunciations we sometimes come across.
So find here our beloved poem, a classic among learners of English: The Chaos by Dr. Gerald Nolst Trenité (1870). With the help of the words in the previous challenges:
- Recite the poem. A big clue to pronunciation is the fact that it rhymes (yay!)
- Underline or write down the words you're not sure of.
- Look them up in an online dictionary or listen to the poem here.
- Come back here to tell us of your frustrations or funny findings or just to tell us how it went! It'll brings us together in learning.
Enjoy!
Wow!
ReplyDeleteQuite good this online poem
it almost breaks my modem.
Impossible for me to read it agile
thanks to my mind is in English still... fragile.
Surely there would be a mistake
so, keep calm and enjoy it with a steak.
This text has no sense
I know it, are you tense?
This is the result of the confinement
let's take it witjh reassignment.
ha ha ha!!! I loved the poem, not this one, the pronunciation poem!
hahahaha! Thank you, Carlos!
DeleteCarlos, you made me chuckle! I understand you want to say "resignation" in the last verb, but of course, that wouldn't rhyme!
DeleteThank you so much!
Very tricky but very useful! I didn't pronounce well many words, it was like a tongue twister sometimes! Shakespeare's language is complicated.
ReplyDeleteWell... I got really crazy with this challenge! To be positive... even though I struggled with most of the poem, there were a few words whose pronunciation I could know thanks to the previous challenges :-)
ReplyDeleteI found a video in which a guy recites the poem, and it helped me to check some pronunciation (I've been actually reciting the poem a few times and my belief is that I got better :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edPxKqiptw
Regarding to how I've incorporated these challenges into my routine, what I do is adding as a task in the to-do list I write down every morning. I can't say I've reserved a specific moment in the day for that, but what I usually do is working on the challenge during a break of job tasks.
I'm feeling really committed to English during this confinement period. Apart from the course activities and challenges, I'm watching Peaky Blinders all out and even learning and singing English songs (there's nothing like having endless time...)
Thank you again Bea!
It's almost therapeutic, isn't it? Keep enjoying it, Evelia!
DeleteBy the way, one of the links on the post also featured a recording of the poem, in case you want to check it out or try to find differences.
Hi Bea,
ReplyDeleteDespite being housebound, I´m working more than at the office, so this challenge gives me the perfect daily excuse to take a break and keep working on English.
When it comes to dealing with the poem, it´s been very tough. Anyhow, the previous pronunciation exercises undoubtly helped me to weather the storm this poem set up in my mind.
Thanks for you work Bea!
Navigating chaos! Thank you, Daniel!
DeleteWonderful and useful poem! I have to look many words to see the pronunciation, really tricky in some cases
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you've enjoyed it, Miguel!
Delete