Thé is Tea

Rick and Matthew were eating breakfast and drinking "the" this morning when I walked into the kitchen. They were laughing and I asked them what they were talking about. "Drinking the", they said. It took me a minute or two to realize they were talking about thé, which is French for tea, but they were totally missing the pronunciation. Apparently, this morning was the first time they had ever really noticed what tea was called on the front of the box.



What does a good language learner do?

Practice what they've just learned, of course! So Rick gets ready to go out for his morning prayerwalk. He usually stops at a corner nearby and has a cup of coffee with the guys. But this morning he decided to have thé. So he tells the guy he wants thé. And the guy looks at him like he has ten heads.....which is a normal part of our daily lives. So Rick tries again to use his new words to tell the guy he would like thé. And again....blank stare back at the crazy white man.

So what does a good language learner do?

Resort to nonverbal hand motions, of course! So Rick starts pointing at another guy who is sitting there drinking thé. And the light bulb finally illuminates and the guy says, "Oh, you mean Lipton!"

Even when you know the right words, you still don't know the right words. This is the always frustrating....and sometimes funny....reality of learning a different language.

Speaking of pronunciation and language learning......my current stats....according to Rosetta Stone...are above 90% in vocab, grammar, reading and writing. But pronunciation....75%. We all have a long way to go.