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From: James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Lipreading foreign languages
Message-ID: <15829@handicap.news>
Date: 30 May 91 03:55:46 GMT
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[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

I think part of the problem with your friend who eats "pood" rather
than food is not her disinterest in learning to speak clearly as you
and I might define it. I think it is due to how her ears "hear" English.
One's ears become trained to hear certain sounds. So much so that sometimes
we swear a person said something they swear they did not say. I once
got a whipping for saying a nasty word I know I did not say, but an
adult who "heard" me swears I did say. I was whipped as much having
"spite" the adult's word as for having allegingly said the no no.

You take a person from Brooklyn, Los Angeles or wherever. They are
used to hearing English spoken a certain way. You transplant them and
they will speak their particular brand of English for years and years
no matter how often you correct them. Often it may take them decades
before they unlearn certain pronounciation-and good Lord, these are
Americans! Now imagine a foreigner's situtation! Unlearning what the
ear has been trained by experience to hear is not so much a matter
of wanting to learn to speak "properly' as it is the brains manner
on processing aural information in an insisted manner (read trained
or habitual). I wish I had time to ge further into this but I don't
at this time. We can continue with it in future posts if you like.

--
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