Andrew Gibson, University of Utah
Humanities
In many languages we have words that don’t have a one-to-one correlation, for instance, ‘Wednesday’ sounds more like ‘wensday’. Although writing systems can be consistent, some syllables are pronounced differently in some contexts. The point is; that words have different sounds from their written form. I theorized this as ‘word deceptive.’ These words can often deceive us when spelled differently from the way they sound. This can be difficult for others learning a language. But to aid in this difficulty is with word deceptive strategies: 1.Make the unfamiliar familiar 2. Associate visuals to the word to increase word retention 3. Use words in interpersonal experiences.
This can be found in any language. I chose Korean to focus on specifically. By utilizing these strategies there were three outcomes. To give some general background, Korea is one of the most literate countries in the world due to there of phonetic simplicity.
Literacy is important from childhood I did not know how to read when I was in the second grade. My classmates persuaded me that I was not smart because I was illiterate. But one day, my teacher helped me to see my potential and told that I can do anything I put my mind to if I would say one simple phrase, ” I can do it!” I had success and used the same comparison to learning languages; others may persuade us not to learn a language because it is difficult, but imagine the joy one can have when they acquire something that may be foreign to them.