From the song Ol’ Man River:
“He don’t plant tater
He don’t plant cotton
An’ them that plants ’em is soon forgotten.”
In my previous post I said it might not be as hard to learn new languages as everybody thinks. Well, if that is a fact why doesn’t everybody just go out and do it?
I’ll try to answer that. But beware, this simple thing might need a complicated explanation.
As I said last time, it is all about doing the right thing as opposed to doing things right, and about starting at the beginning.
So, we need to find out where the beginning really begins. I did say that language begins with the sounds,or rather sound patterns. But therein lies the problem. Sound is volatile; once uttered it’s gone, gone forever. Even whole words, as the famous singer Paul Robson sang: “… is soon forgotten”.
The first task, then, is to make sure you catch the string of sounds that you hear; after that to catch them accurately; and finally, that they’re not forgotten – neither soon, nor later.
I advise you: do not read the lyrics. Not a word, nothing. Listen to the song instead.
The spelling rules that you know are tied to your mother tongue and your brain is easily fooled, no matter how smart it otherwise is. New sounds are apt to travel down old neural pathways and to choose the wrong route, like following your usual exit off the motorway.
How this trap can be avoided? I’ll try to explain that in my next post.
Until then
Karl
The Hofsö Method 