5 ms·

She can't say her own name - why doesn't she learn it then? There's plenty of Bengali people in the world, pay one for a few hours of lessons. I say this, beca

She can't say her own name - why doesn't she learn it then? There's plenty of Bengali people in the world, pay one for a few hours of lessons. I say this, because one thing I see over and over amongsts failed foreign language learners is that they complain endlessly about not knowing the language. They'll do anything to learn the language - except for putting in some effort of course.

nunuvit 3y ago
She said her Bengali relatives tell her she says it with an accent. Becoming fluent wouldn't necessarily fix that. Teaching diction is a specialized area, and most language instruction doesn't go too deep into it.
- hsjqllzlfkf 3y ago
  So get an expert to help her say that exact sound. Or better yet, use my method - record a pro saying it, then record yourself saying it, repeat until you got it. It's not rocket science.
  - nunuvit 3y ago
    And when she wants to say a different Bengali word? She acknowledged that she can learn, but the point of the article is that her upbringing was disconnected from the language and culture.
    - hsjqllzlfkf 3y ago
      Rinse and repeat. Why is this a mystery?
      - nunuvit 3y ago
        It's not a mystery. If you narrow the scope of the problem to pronunciation, then it's a solution. Good job.
  - ZeroGravitas 3y ago
    I thought some languages had sounds that didn't exist in others, which leads to a kind of audio colour blindness where you literally can't tell the difference between two sounds? Japanese R Vs L is maybe the canonical example. Maybe you can train around this, but maybe you can't. Wikipedia cites conflicting evidence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_of_English_/r/_and_/l/_by_Japanese_speakers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_of_English_/r/_and_...
tragomaskhalos 3y ago
As her name is Mithu, I suspect that she struggles to correctly pronounce the aspiration on the 't' - this is a feature of Indian languages that is notoriously tricky for anglophone (and indeed most european) speakers.

nunuvit 3y ago

She said her Bengali relatives tell her she says it with an accent. Becoming fluent wouldn't necessarily fix that. Teaching diction is a specialized area, and most language instruction doesn't go too deep into it.

hsjqllzlfkf 3y ago
So get an expert to help her say that exact sound. Or better yet, use my method - record a pro saying it, then record yourself saying it, repeat until you got it. It's not rocket science.
- nunuvit 3y ago
  And when she wants to say a different Bengali word? She acknowledged that she can learn, but the point of the article is that her upbringing was disconnected from the language and culture.
  - hsjqllzlfkf 3y ago
    Rinse and repeat. Why is this a mystery?
    - nunuvit 3y ago
      It's not a mystery. If you narrow the scope of the problem to pronunciation, then it's a solution. Good job.
- ZeroGravitas 3y ago
  I thought some languages had sounds that didn't exist in others, which leads to a kind of audio colour blindness where you literally can't tell the difference between two sounds? Japanese R Vs L is maybe the canonical example. Maybe you can train around this, but maybe you can't. Wikipedia cites conflicting evidence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_of_English_/r/_and_/l/_by_Japanese_speakers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_of_English_/r/_and_...

tragomaskhalos 3y ago

As her name is Mithu, I suspect that she struggles to correctly pronounce the aspiration on the 't' - this is a feature of Indian languages that is notoriously tricky for anglophone (and indeed most european) speakers.