>don't expect that they know which sounds you are correcting in their English when you repeat the word for the tenth time. This phenomenon is probably the most

>don't expect that they know which sounds you are correcting in their English when you repeat the word for the tenth time. This phenomenon is probably the most interesting thing I've found out in my life. The fact that some people simply cannot hear certain sounds goes against everything we would like to think. When people talk about varying tone inside words (such as in Chinese or Thai), while I obviously hear that something is happening, I cannot for the life of me reproduce what I hear or even retain the tonal information. For me , tone is a separate aspect to vocabulary and I can't assimilate the two. Inversely, seeing the plight of poor Japanese people, who get taught English from an early age through the limited japanese syllable system (not sure the exact name), unable to repeat words properly, and sometimes going completely off the mark. This just accents the need for everyone to be exposed to as many languages as possible as a child.