Question:
No other language, that I have come into contact with, is so obsessed with
rattling off its own alphabet as English is. One of the first things you do
when you learn English is to drum the sounds of the English letters into
your brain. This is strange because the "alphabet sounds" are often
different from the "real life sounds"; the fact that the letter "y" is
pronounced the way it is doesn't give you much of a clue when you're trying
to spell "androgynous" (a mistake I made earlier). Could someone explain to
me why rattling off the alphabet is such an important part of English
language education?
Answer:
only H, W and Y. The others all include one pronunciation of the
letter.
It's useful. To discuss spelling or other things related to
individual letters. It also helps you use the dictionary and the phone
book. (not so silly. I started school in September, couldn't read a
letter at the time, and in December I looked up my mother's friend in
the phone book to call her and tell her my brother was picking on me.)
Don't you have to learn your alphabet eventually? Why not early?
When do you learn it?
OTOH, I learned Spanish by traveling. The alphabet is almost the
same, and I'd been hitchhiking 2 weeks before someone volunteered to
teach me the alphabet, in response to some question we asked. He was
a laborer on a road repair crew in Guatemala. After I knew it I could
distinguish B from V and R from RR, etc. I thought it was very
helpful, but then again, I think like an English speaker.
In Hebrew too, the alphabet, the aleph-bais, was one of the first
things I learned. And although I learned it in the US, the method of
teaching goes back to Danzig and central and eastern Europe, and
probably Spain and maybe Israel itself. I think the same method is
used all over the world.
Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis, 7 years
Chicago, 6 years
Brooklyn NY 12 years
Baltimore 17 years
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