What puzzles me about the English language

What are the barriers that the Spanish-speaking folks find when trying to learn English?

1.- Spanish is a phonetic language, English is not.
2.- Phrasal verbs
3.- False friends

1. Spanish is a phonetic language, English is not.
Some languages are "phonetic". That means you can look at a written word and know how to pronounce it. Or you can hear a word and know how to spell it. With phonetic languages, there is a direct relationship between the spelling and the sound.
The Spanish is a phonetic language (mostly) and the English is not. This is our first, and I would say main, difficulty when studying English.
In English some words can have the same spelling but different pronunciation, for example:
I like to read [ri:d].
I have read [red] that book.
Some words have different spelling but the same pronunciation, for example:
I have read [red] that book.
My favourite colour is red [red].
This puzzles us, the Spanish-speaking folks.
In Spanish a “spelling bee contest” will not make any sense. It will be too easy.
In Spanish there are five vowels with five different sounds, in English there a five vowels with twenty different sounds. This confuses us and it is what give us, the Spanish-speaking folks the particular accent we have.
For instance, I’ve been never been able to distinguish I Can from I Can’t.
When we go to the Pharmacy we ask for
VicksVaporub (Show sign) instead of (Peter)
To further illustrate this point, we say that the spelling "ough" can be pronounced with seven different sounds. But this is the wrong way to put it. It would be better to say that the seven different sounds can be represented in writing by the same spelling. So you see that it cannot help at all to think about "ough". It's much more helpful to think about the seven sounds:
1. though (like o in go)
2. through (like oo in too)
3. cough (like off in offer)
4. rough (like uff in suffer)
5. plough (like ow in flower)
6. ought (like aw in saw)
7. borough (like a in above)
This drive us crazy

2. Phrasal verbs
A phrasal verb is a verb plus a preposition or adverb which creates a meaning different from the original verb.
This produces utter confusion in us, the students .
My favourite is
MAKE UP
It has 12 different meanings as a transitive verb
1. to form by fitting together or assembling
2. to arrange typeset matter in (as pages) for printing
3. to combine to produce (a sum or whole)
4. constitute, compose <10 chapters make up this volume>
5. to compensate for (as a deficiency or omission)
6. to do or take in order to correct an omission
7. settle, decide
8. to wrap or fasten up
9. to prepare in physical appearance for a role
10. to apply cosmetics to
11. invent, improvise
12. to set in order
And 6 as intransitive verb.
1. to become reconciled
2. to act ingratiatingly and flatteringly
3. to make advances : court
4. compensate
5. to put on costumes or makeup (as for a play)
6. to apply cosmetics

3. False friends

Like
Preservatives
Avocado
End of diversion

So, I’m about to finish up this speech, which I’ve made up with the help of the web, because I’m looking forward to the food and drinks

Ration book and catechism

Today, I’m going to tell you a couple of stories of my life. That’s all. Nothing extraordinary, just a couple of stories.

My early years have been marked by two books: The Ration Book and the Catechism. One brings to me good remembrances, the other bad remenbrances

The ration book

I belong to the so-called post-war generation.

It was a difficult time.

Let me smile at the present economic crisis. At that time, basic staples were rationed: cooking oil, wheat flour, coal, soap, tobacco and many others. We used food coupons. That lasted till 1.952.

Did we, the kids, notice? Not at all, for us it was a happy time.

We constructed our own toys –a far cry of the play stations of today—.These were:

·       Slingshots (made with a forked branch, inner tube strips, and leather pad). For hunting birds, cats and the like.

·       Bows and arrows

·       Kites and balloons (with wire, rope and paper). High, high, up and away.

·       racing cars, my favourite, huge speed, lots of danger, (with wooden boards and roller bearings)

·       swords and shields (out of wood)

·       drums (with empty cans)

We played also

·       bottle top football (with faces of players pasted in)

·       ring game (with bicycle wheels)

·       hut construction (on top of trees)

·       Nail game (with a big nail). After turning, nail had to hit the ground with pointed end and get it nailed on the ground.

·       rag ball (with strips of cloth)

·       marbles (we made our own out of glass)

Toy construction is a tricky business: inventing, calibrating, testing and perfecting. We learned how to use our own hands and ingenuity.

After all, using tools is one of our signs of identity as “homo sapiens”. It has transformed, for right or wrong, the world around us.

The other thing that marked my youth was:

The catechism

My parents sent me to the Jesuits for an education.

The Jesuits threw at me all their weaponry of mass persuasion: catechism, daily masses, rosaries, confession, communion, holy week, processions, prayers, chants, incense and spiritual exercises.

They promised me the joy of heaven, where I will enjoy eternal bliss, and threatened me with fire of hell, where I will burn forever. They told me to be chaste and advised me against sex before marriage and even masturbation. They taught me the sacred history, the dogma, the moral and the liturgy. We collected money to convert to Christianity the Negroes in Africa, and the Indians in America. We carried flowers to the Virgin Mary in springtime. We mourned the death of Christ in Easter time. We were inspired to admire de saints (lots of them) and respect the Pope in Rome which was infallible (that is: never made mistakes).

But, of all that, I consider particularly wicked the way we were taught Catechism. We had to learn it by heart, and at the age of seven, we didn’t understand a thing.

It was a series of Q & A. It begun:

-        Q. Tell us boy, what’s your name (using the old Spanish “Vos”)

-        A. Pablo

-        Q. Are you a Christian?

-        A. Yes, by the grace of God

-        Q. Do you know what it means to be a Christian?

-        A. A man who has the faith in Christ, professed at the baptism

Many religions (Buddhist, Jews, and Muslims) teach this way to early age children.

The children gather in the religious school, given the sacred texts, assigned a portion they must learn, and there you see the poor children nodding their heads, fighting to memorise those strange words they don’t understand.

I would call this child abuse.

We had competitions to show our proficiency. It was a kind of “musical chairs”. We were organized in a circle, a child saying a question and the other the answer. If anyone failed, he was out. The circle was thus reduced until there was a handful of chosen ones, or perhaps one, who was the winner, and was given a present (a book with the life of a saint, for instance).

All these weapons of mass distraction, yes, they threw at me, but, alas, they did not succeed.

And my mother, 91 years old, still living, tells me: ah Pablo, Pablo, with all we spent sending you to the Jesuits and now an atheist! You have read too many books that have poisoned you.

So, two books: the ration book and the catechism. One, was symbol of the dire economic conditions in post-war Spain, but a happy time for kids.

The other, the catechism, a symbol of the suffocating religious indoctrination of the times: a form of oppression.