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Old September 11, 2008, 06:13 PM
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Cool English Orthography

Nice presentation by a 102-year-old man (Ed Rondthaler) on the difficulties of spelling the English language. Enjoy

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  #2  
Old September 11, 2008, 06:36 PM
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David Where is from the person, you have said that he has 102 years old, it's very nice that he even has health and fortitude, here in Mexico there are people old too, people that has 90 years old or more, I wanna life much too, I wish it, my grandfather has 95 years old and he even walk for the street, he show much force in his body, and it to me, I excite it, because today almost there aren't people that life more of 55 years old, before in time of 1950 to 1980 the tempo of life has changed a lot, in the world the life is more difficult than before, well it was my commentary about it, and I wish him more life and a lot health.
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Old September 11, 2008, 10:55 PM
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I love it, especially the ending!

Elders have so much life-experience, and I'm sure you could get some nice conversations with them. Unfortunately, I don't know any, but I hope I will in the future. Also, I would love if I could become that old.
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Old September 12, 2008, 06:13 AM
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Tengo miedo ponerme así viejo. La mayoría de la gente vieja pierden su
independencia. Pierden su memoria y fortuleza. Las enfermedades crónicas como artritis, diabetes y enfermedad cardiaca tienen un efecto malo as su felicidad. Los problemas financiales tambien le afectan los jubilados cuando sus ahorros agotan.

Si tienen hijos que les respetan puede ayudar la situación, pero muchas veces los hijos tienen sus propios problemas, sus propias vidas y sus propios hijos. Tambien la suerte de buena salud ayuda, pero la salud no es suerte nada más. Es una vida en que tiene que dedicar en comida saludable, ejercicio, y poco estrés--y más importante un senso de propósito. No sé si lo dije bien en español pero una passión, un propósito efectívamente lucha la depresion que acompaña la vejez. Lamentablamente hay pocos como el señor Rondthaler del vídeo. Pero él es un buen ejemplo de la victoria sobre los retos miedosos que los viejotos enfrentan.
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Old September 12, 2008, 08:59 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CrOtALiTo View Post
David Where is from the person from?, you have said that he has is 102 years old, it's very nice that he even has health and fortitude, here in Mexico there are old people old too, people that has are 90 years old or more, I wanna want to life livemuch a lot too, I wish it, my grandfather has is 95 years old and he can even walk for down the street, he shows much force in his body, and it to me, I excite it, because today almost there aren't people that life live more of than 55 years old, before in time of 1950 to 1980 the tempo of life has changed a lot, in the world the life is more difficult than before, well it was my commentary about it, and I wish him more life and a lot of health.
I'm not sure where he's from, I assume somewhere in the United States.
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Old September 12, 2008, 10:48 AM
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Okis.

Thanks for your corrections about it.
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Old September 20, 2008, 03:08 AM
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Thanks, David. It's great, I just watched the presentation with my son and we both thought it was great fun. I'll definitely be using it with my students.(Lessons starting Oct 2nd ).
You're probably familiar with the following poem or one of the many others of the same kind. I think they are great learning and teaching tools (and also quite ingenious):

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, lough and through?
(it seems lough is an Hiberno-English form of the Scottish loch but I'm not sure about the pron)
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird,
And dead: it's said like bed, not bead -
For goodness sake don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's dose and rose and lose -
Just look them up - and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart -
Come, come, I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I'd mastered it when I was five!

Quoted by Vivian Cook and Melvin Bragg 2004,
by Richard Krogh, in D Bolinger & D A Sears, Aspects of Language, 1981,
and in Spelling Progress Bulletin March 1961, Brush up on your English.
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Last edited by María José; September 20, 2008 at 03:18 AM.
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Old September 20, 2008, 06:17 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by María José View Post
...
On hiccough, thorough, lough and through? (it seems lough is an Hiberno-English form of the Scottish loch but I'm not sure about the pron)
It is pronounced the same way as loch.
Nice poem! Each line rhymes with the line that follows, if that's of any help to the hispanohablantes.
I challenge each of you native speakers to look up the words for the proper pronunciation. For instance, let's see how to pronounce bough (second line of the poem, the second word that ends in ough). Go to http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bough.
Notice that there is a link to the IPA pronunciation instead of the English spelling pronunciation. The English spelling of the pronunciation is [bou]. Looking at just the English spelling of the pronunciation, you may be tempted to think that bough rhymes with go. It actually rhymes with cow. The IPA pronunciation for bough is /baʊ/. The IPA pronunciation for go is /goʊ/. It rhymes with dough.

While you're on the dictionary page, click on the icon that looks like a speaker and you'll hear the word pronounced! Try this with the other three words that end in ough on the second line of the poem and you'll learn that none of them rhyme.

Last edited by Rusty; September 20, 2008 at 09:14 AM.
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Old September 20, 2008, 12:34 PM
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If you liked María's poem, you'll probably like this episode of I Love Lucy.

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Old September 21, 2008, 05:09 PM
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Thanks, David. I hadn't seen I love Lucy for about 15 years but I loved the video and I have already added it to the list of things I plan to do with my students this course.
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