English is the most awful language that there is. I have always heard that it is one of the most difficult languages to learn, but never realized that that also makes it one of the most difficult to teach.
Really.
Why the heck do we have silent letters? That doesn’t make any sense. If you don’t say them, don’t write them. And imagine not only the learner’s confusion but also my own as we’re reading a story and she struggles with “night”, pronouncing it “niGet”. I explain to her that when “gh” are together, they are silent, you don’t say them. Three sentences later we get to the word “laughing.” In laughing, the “gh” is pronounced like…an F?
Consistency people, consistency.
*Note: I do know the answers to all of these questions that I pose about language…I took linguistics and many, many years of grammar that have helped me understand how the presence of those silent letters and sounds often change the sound of proceeding or following vowels…but to try explaining that to somebody who barely speaks English and whose language you don’t speak? VERY frustrating indeed.
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