Observations: Languages
In German, Italian, French, Spanish, Japanese, Swahili, Luganda, and Hindi the letter “i” is pronounced “e” (think the long english e). Yet in English it is never pronounced “e”. Why is that? It makes it very confusing for people who are attempting to learn English. Do you know any other languages? How is “i” pronounced in those languages?
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Hi Jessica,
I just stumbled across your blog, so apologies if you’ve written about this somewhere and I haven’t found it! I found “language” as a topic and this is the only post that came up. I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to your original question, but I have one of my own!
I was wondering, what’s your approach to learning languages as you travel? Do you learn a few basic words for each one before you go, or do you just wing it when you’re there? Do you try to master the pronunciations? How much do you remember? You must have seen and heard every widely-spoken language, which must be fascinating in itself!
Kind regards,
Rob
Hi Rob,
I speak some French, Italian, Spanish and can stumble my way through Portuguese. Beyond those languages I just learn key phrases like greetings and thank you. Everywhere you go, you will find people that speak English, though some francophone African countries can be tough. I do try to have good pronunciation and I don’t remember that much unless I go to multiple countries with the same language. You should check out my audiobook, The Catch Me If You Can. I speak in 80 languages on it!
same in fijian!