Today in government we covered butter prices, among other things. I now know where I can get butter on sale.
Also spent some time wondering in Spanish class if I was demanding too much of people when I expected them (after two semesters of Spanish) to remember that "que" in Spanish is *not* pronounced "quay." This makes for some interesting moments - queso becomes kway-so. Panqueques (pancakes) becomes pan-kway-kways. Try to say that five times really fast.
They do that in college, too? My wife took the equivalent of two years worth of Spanish in a semester; I never heard her mention that.
ReplyDeleteThat problem was all the rage in junior high. Our teacher did everything right, and still some people delighted in reveling and wallowing in their ignorance. It seems like you should only have to be told one or twice that you never pronounce the letter H in Spanish, but why learn it and remember it?
My ninth grade Spanish teacher was excellent. She taught us perfect pronunciation for Spanish. She had us do exercises where we read passages of English text pronouncing every letter as if it were Spanish. When she was done we could pronounce Spanish perfectly, without an accent. We could correctly read anything in Spanish, even if we could not understand it. Sadly, many people in class failed to take advantage of that spectacular opportunity, and the tenth grade teacher was not as good.
A perfectly phonetic alphabet is a beautiful thing. I can't believe people would not want to learn the rules to at least one.
DAvid, I'll tell you something else we found interesting. The Equuschick has never studied Spanish a minute of her life. We called her in to the room and asked her how she thought que would be pronounced in Spanish. She said, and I quote, "How would I know? I don't know Spanish! Okay, well, I know what Quesedilla and Queso are, so I guess you pronounce que 'kay' in Spanish."
ReplyDeleteIf you read that from start to finish without pause that's how long it took her to figure it out.
So why are these college students still not able to figure it out after two semesters of the language?
That's a rhetorical question.
I suspect that Spanish classes in Texas are probably somewhat more authentic than ones in Indiana, for purely geographic & demographic reasons.
ReplyDeleteTimotheus, the teacher is pretty authentic.
ReplyDeleteShe's not from around here. And here is a place where Pulaski is pronounced Pull-ask-eye.
She said, and I quote, "How would I know? I don't know Spanish! Okay, well, I know what Quesedilla and Queso are, so I guess you pronounce que 'kay' in Spanish."
ReplyDeleteAh, but the Equuschick is capable of learning
Those other people are, too. They just don't want to. Is it right that that makes me mad?
So why are these college students still not able to figure it out after two semesters of the language?
That's a rhetorical question.
That's good, because I don't want to know the answer.
Tim, if the classes here are more authentic, then why could my peers in the ninth and tenth grades never figure it out. When the smartest girl in the class is still pronouncing "hace frio" with an audible "h" and as if it rhymed with "Pace picante sauce" after five months of class, something is seriously wrong. And I guarantee it was NOT with the teacher.
The issue was that we had two, maybe three people who wanted to learn to speak Spanish. I don't know what the rest of those people wanted to do.