Irish Language Hacks for Seachtain na Gaeilge

Irish Language Hacks for Seachtain na Gaeilge

Seachtain na Gaeilge has started and in a few days Lá le Padraig will be upon us. This year, with the centenary of Eirí Amach 1916 we seem to have a renewed interest in Irish culture and by extension in our language. So if you think that you don’t have any Irish, here are some hacks to get you going again.

#1 You have more Irish than you think!

You’re just out of practice.  You read my opening two sentences and you understood them, even though part of them were in Irish.  You did Irish in school, it’s there.  Our brain holds on to everything it has ever learned, it just needs practice.  You have Irish, you’re just out of practice – Tá tú as cleachtadh. It will all come with some practice.

#2 Your Irish doesn’t have to be perfect.

Irish is a language and the purpose of language is communication.  I once bought a beautiful hand woven rug in a craft shop in Spain.  I had no Spanish & the owner had no English, yet we were able to communicate because I wanted to buy the rug and she wanted to sell it!  Where there’s a will, there’s a way.  Just start talking in Irish & if you need to put in an English word – put it in!  If you go to the Gaeltacht areas, you’ll find this happening all the time!

# Think like Yoda

Irish is a very unique language in that it follows a sentence structure that only 9% of the world’s languages follow.  Its structure is Verb Subject Object.  When directly translated into English I always think that it sounds like Yoda speaking in Star Wars.  No wonder the birthplace of the Force is in Kerry!

# Irish has very few irregular verbs.

Unlike English which has over 100 irregular verbs, Irish only has 11.  Once you know them (and you do already), you’re good to go.

# There is no Yes or No in Irish.

Ever wonder which you can never get a straight yes or no from an Irish person – it’s because it’s not in our psyche.  Think about it, listen to people around you.  Even in English we continue with the Irish structure – We’d ask – ‘was John sick yesterday?’  We’d never say yes, we’d say ‘he was / he wasn’t’, An raibh Seán tinn inné?  Bhí sé /Ní raibh sé

# Grammar helps but it’s not the be all and end all

Make mistakes, make loads of mistakes. Nobody is going to think less of you. You’re (re)learning a language, you’re going to make mistakes. Think about it when you a tourist asks you for information in broken English. Do you ignore them because they are not speaking the Queen’s English? Of course not.  The grammar will come and once you are speaking in Irish it will become easier to correct those little butúns – see you understood that!!

# The Modh Coinníollach cannot hurt you.

For some reason the modh coinníollach has been built up into this huge scary monster. But the truth is, the modh coinníollach cannot hurt you.  Have you ever thought about what you would do if you won the lotto?  Yes? Congratulations, you were thinking in the Modh Coinníollach.  It is the conditional tense, something happening on condition of something else happening e.g. I would go on a cruise if I won the lotto.  It is that easy.

# Learn the words that matter

A new (or forgotten) language means learning lots of new words, which can be very off-putting. But, here’s the big secret, you do NOT need to know all the words of a language to be able to speak it. The reality is that, although you are fluent in it, you don’t know all the words in the English language either. Use the 80/20 principle here, and realise that 20% of the effort you spend on acquiring new vocabulary could ultimately give you 80% comprehension in Irish—for instance, in English just 300 words make up 65% of all written material. We use those words a lot, and that’s the case in every other language, including Irish as well. So invest your time well and learn those words that you are going to get maximum use out of.  You can always learn the rest in the future.

# Take advantage of free stuff

What did we do before the internet?  Want to learn Irish – or any other language for that matter?  You Tube is great, just be sure to get the dialect correct.  If you’re from Munster, then learn Munster Irish! Find native speakers online & skype with them. Watch TG4 – there are some fantastic documentaries on it.

There is an excellent free app called Duolingo, which could a great place to start your Irish language renaissance.

#Listen to Raidió na Gaeltachta

I had it on in the background today while typing this and I found myself thinking in Irish while trying to type in English.  It was a surreal experience because I’m not a native speaker.  I could follow a good share of the interview, they were talking about exporting shamrock from Ballinskelligs & how it was sent to the UK by courier and they agreed , is iontach an system at DHL! 

 So if the native speakers are happy to throw in the cúpla focal Béarla, you can be happy to too.

If you’ve read all the way down to here you may be interested in ‘The Irish Course™’. It is a innovative approach to the Irish Language incorporating the Hummingbird Learning Method®. We are finalising dates at present so to be one of the first to hear about it just email me at elaine@hummingbirdlearning.com and I will put you on the advanced notice list.

Slán.

Elaine Sparling Founder & CEO Hummingbird Learning Centre®

Elaine Sparling is the CEO of the award winning Hummingbird Learning Centre®. Based in Adare, Co Limerick and Tralee, Co Kerry, she works with clients on a one to one basis and can be contacted on 087-2996054 or through their website www.hummingbirdlearning.com. They are currently developing a week long Irish Course for summer 2016. The online version of their popular workshop The Secrets to Successful Spelling™ is available through their website and Facebook page and they have launched their Study Success Program™ for second & third level students.

How to Correct a Pencil / Pen grip and why it is so important

A few weeks ago, my cousin Trish was visiting from Dublin. Trish is a Montessori teacher and as you can imagine, it didn’t take long for the conversation to turn to learning. We were amazed to find that we have both noticed that many children dislike writing and how there seems to be a decline in handwriting skills and an increase in really bad pencil grips!

Handwriting Requires:

-Fine motor skills: Dexterity, Precision, Coordination, Grasping

-Visual motor/Oculomotor skills: Eye teaming, Convergence, Scanning

-Behavioural skills: Attention, Focus, Creativity

Writing can be both a representation of necessary skill mastery (i.e. a proper grasp = able to button a shirt, tie shoes, or open containers to prepare a meal).

OR, it can be a window into underlying delays in skill development (i.e. poor handwriting can reveal visual motor integration issues, vision issues, behavioural/emotional issues, etc.).

Humans are not born with the natural inclination to hold writing tools with a proper grip. The proper pencil grasp actually has a name: the tripod grip.  Though the tripod grip is preferred, the quadropod grip is also a common and accepted grip.

The tripod grip utilizes three fingers to secure a writing utensil: the thumb and forefinger directing, with the utensil resting on the middle finger. The quadropod grip uses four fingers working together to stabilize the writing tool.

The tripod grip is the ideal grip for proper letter and number formation and writing, and this grip is a skill that must be modelled, taught, and corrected.   When there are too many fingers involved, or if the stance is improper, writing will not be as easy as it can be.  And writing is a difficult skill even without the grip!

But how do you teach kids how to properly hold a writing utensil?

Before you even place the tool in the child’s hand, determine whether the child is right-handed or left-handed (or a ciotóg as we say in Irish).

When you are ready to introduce the tripod grip, it’s pretty simple:
– Place a writing tool in your child’s hand;
– Move the fingers to the proper position, encouraging the child to keep their little finger and ring finger on the palm so that the fingers can do their jobs (a little pom-pom is great to use here);
– Show the child how to manipulate the tool by moving their fingers more than their wrist.

And after your child does a little bit of doodling, colouring, and painting, the tripod grip will become as easy as breathing.  It’s just imperative for parents to play an integral role in instructing early on, with demonstrating, correcting, and modelling. I cannot stress this enough – children seem to be arriving to Montessori, playschool and big school with really poor tripod grips and if not corrected early it can become a problem later on.

Ideally, we want children to be comfortable writing and to teach them proper grip as a starting point.  As they get older this will mean that they are more relaxed when writing with a lot less neck, shoulder and wrist discomfort when writing essays or in exams.  They won’t be digging into the paper because the grip will be secure and they will writing with better flow.

Cursive writing will also become easier and as cursive writing aids the flow of thoughts, having the correct handwriting grip is vital.

Trish went back to Dublin and on my recommendation started to use the pom-pom with her Montessori students – the results were astounding – here’s the text she sent me:

“OMG what a difference the humble pom-pom makes! The pencil holding and letter formation with the children who were struggling has improved by 100%!  Thank you…thank you.”

Have you noticed how your child holds their pen & pencil? For more information contact me at elaine@hummingbirdlearning.com

How to deal with Sight (Dolch) Words when Learning to Read

In 1948, Edward William Dolch PhD, of the University of Illinois, in his book ‘Problems in Reading’ identified a list of words that he believed to be essential for all students to learn first.  He had researched children’s books to determine which words were most frequently used and after careful analysis and professional judgment, he derived a list of the most common words, usually referred to as sight words.  The Dolch list of 220 words includes conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, adverbs, adjectives and verbs.  He referred to these words as ‘tools’ or ‘service’ words because they are used in all writing regardless of subject matter.

Many teachers have found this to be true.  Although most of the 220 Dolch words are phonetic, children are sometimes told that they can’t be ‘sounded out’ using common sound-to-letter implicit phonics patterns and have to be learned by sight; hence the alternative term, ‘sight word’. Unfortunately, English is not a simple a phonetic language and not all words can be sounded out. So Dolch maintained that teaching children the simplicity of recognising words by sight, they stand a better chance at becoming fluent readers.

In addition to the 220 “service words”, Dolch also put together a list of 95 common nouns which appeared most frequently in children’s books at the time, some of which seem outdated today.

In my experience, the difficulty that many children have with sight words is that most sight words are abstract words and therefore it can be difficult to understand what the word means.  Think about it.  How do you explain the word ‘it’ or ‘and’ or ‘if’ or ‘but’?

It is easy to get meaning for a car or boat.  Before learning how to read, a child has already absorbed language & understands the meaning of many words, even abstract words. They understand them in context even if they are unable to accurately verbalise their meaning.

It is very important that sight words are taught in context and with meaning.  The student needs to be able to visualise and hear the meaning.  For example, for the word ‘if’ they should have a mini movie in their head as to what it means – If I eat too may sweets what will happen?  When saying the word ’if’, it should sound like a question.

Learning to spell the word first will also make reading it easier, especially if the word is not spelled phonetically.  The student will recognise the pattern of the letters, have meaning behind it and know the correct pronunciation, thus making reading the word in the future much easier.

I do not believe in using flashcards when beginning to learn the Dolch words.  They place huge stress on the student.  It is far better to use a good story which has specifically incorporated the 220 words.   Even better, why not get the students to come up with their own stories? The crazier the better!  We learn so much better and much more easily when we are enjoying ourselves.

Parental involvement is key to all learning, but especially when taking on the hundreds of sight words children need to know!  Communication is paramount here.  If you have a student who is struggling with sight words, contact the teacher and ask them specifically for help with this. Struggling with sight words does not automatically mean that there is an underlying learning difficulty.  In my experience, it can be easily and quickly resolved through the following simple strategies:

• Have meaning for the word – create a mental image for it, one that makes sense to the child
• Be able to spell the word – have a mental photograph of the entire word
• Hook the meaning and selling together
• Avoid phonics and the brain will recognise the word more readily.
• Write down the word when spelling it rather than reciting it.
• Use sentences rather than calling out lists of words. When a child writes sentences, it gives them exposure to the sight words in a meaningful way.

Sometimes, more experienced readers may skip sight words when reading aloud.  This does not necessarily mean that they are struggling with reading.  Reading aloud is slower than reading silently and very often it means that the brain is speed reading over the Dolch words. It doesn’t have to focus on them because the brain automatically fills in the words when reading silently. This is because the brain is focused on the meaning of the sentence rather than reading each individual word.

For further information contact Elaine on 087 2996054 or Elaine@hummingbirdlearning.com

Stuck for a Christmas Gift

We’ve all been there. Stuck for a Christmas gift idea!  The person in question doesn’t seem to need anything – at least nothing that one would equate as a gift; although my sister once gave my dad a mouse trap as a gift when she was about 8 years old and overheard dad saying that there had been a mouse in the garage.

For the older person it can be a place to write down memories of times gone by.  A place to recall loved ones and bring them back to life by sharing stories about the little things that happened, the saying they had, their faults and follies, dreams and aspirations.  Local history can be recorded; the names of fields saved for future generations, recipes and cures passed on.  Their childhood recalled – one that is so different to now.

You see, history is not just about the big events but also the hundreds of little things that seem mundane at the time but are true glimpses into the past for other generations.  It is the very fact that they are considered mundane, ordinary & no different to anyone else’s life that family history & stories are easily overlooked and before we know it, gone and forgotten FOR-EVER!

A journal is not just about the past but also a place to write about our current experiences, to reflect and think things out.  A pen & paper are marvellous tools for getting perspective.

As for children – well they can dream up their futures in their journal.  They can create characters and escape into other worlds.  Children really have so little control over their lives, but in their journal they are masters of their destiny!  A journal can be a great place to figure out life, a safe place to vent their frustrations, to dream and then discard those dreams before dreaming it all up again.

Writing in a journal is not about having perfect spelling and following the rules of grammar.  It can have drawings & doodles with newspaper clippings & photographs.  It can have codes and made up language.

As the years go by, journals become our time machines.  We can travel back in time.  Our minds have the ability to conjure up people and places we thought were long forgotten, simply by reading about them again.  Journals become our personal time capsule. I was reminded to this today when I took out my cookbooks, looking for Christmas Recipes and there were my Auntie Maura’s and my Granny’s handwritten family favourites and in that instant it was as if they were with me.

There is a line in a song by the Irish band The Fat Lady Sings and it says “We don’t leave ourselves in many things, just in letter, leases, writs and rings, And when the last one’s sold or lost or gone, we don’t belong here, we don’t belong”.

A journal is about the good and not so good things that we have experienced.  It’s about life.  Our life. Record that life in the gift of a journal. Maybe give yourself a journal.  You are here, you matter! Write!

Wishing all of our readers, Hummingbirds and Hummingbird families a wonderful, easy Christmas and a Totally Awesome New Year!

See you in 2016. E

Elaine Sparling is the CEO of the award winning Hummingbird Learning Centre®. Based in Adare, Co Limerick and Tralee, Co Kerry, she works with clients on a one to one basis and can be contacted on 087-2996054 or through their website www.hummingbirdlearning.com. They have also launched the online version of their popular workshop The Secrets to Successful Spelling™ which is available through their website and Facebook page

Appropriate Reading for Kids

We always like to take books with us on our holidays.  I love nothing better than sitting in the sunshine reading my book.  It’s one of my favourite ways to unwind on holiday – assuming there is sunshine!

I’m also a great fan of libraries. Everything about them appeals to me: the rows of books, the orderliness, the calmness, the potential hidden between the covers.  We used to go to the library every Friday when we were children & I brought my kids there too.

So armed with his library card, I sent my son into the library the morning before we were going on our holidays.  His mission was to find a book for his dad, who likes to read biographies. As he is a keen cyclist, my son thought that dad would like a book about Lance Armstrong & chose the book by the Irish whistleblower, Emma O’Reilly (always good to have an Irish perspective).  However, the librarian wouldn’t allow him to take it out because it was an adult book!

When I queried it, (I assumed it might have been because of drug taking in the book), I was told that my 13yr old couldn’t take out books from the adult section.  Now I’m absolutely fine with that rule if he was taking out 50 Shades of Grey, but a sports biography? Don’t we want to encourage reading?

Most of the children I work with dislike reading when they first come to us. In school, books are banded according to various criteria and matched to perceptions of pupils’ ability. This means that some pupils never get access to the books that they would most like to read and share with others, as they are always constrained by the level they have reached. Some pupils never progress through all the levels and they end up reading what they call ‘baby’ books, which only serve to undermine their confidence further.

The Dyslexia Association of Ireland (DAI) held its 7th European Conference in the Newman Building, UCD, Belfield, Dublin 4, on April 25th 2015. The conference brought together experts from Ireland, the UK and Europe to share current research on dyslexia, with a focus on Innovation in Assessment and Teaching.

One of the Keynote speakers, Jonathan Solity in his presentation “Are Synthetic Phonics Programmes and the Phonics Screen Major Causes of Dyslexia?” stated “There is no sound evidence base on which books can be banded or levelled. Schools need to move away from thinking about matching books to pupils’ ability, be clear about the skills that pupils have mastered, and the extent to which they will be able to read any books that they share with more experienced readers.”

In other words, allow the children read books that interest them.  Encourage them to expand their vocabulary. Buy a really good thesaurus dictionary, keep it beside them and help them to find out the meanings themselves.  Use the internet to get the meaning of new words.

Focus on the purpose of reading, which not to read to at a predetermined level, but to share ideas and knowledge.

October is Dyslexia Awareness Month.

Elaine Sparling is the creator of the Hummingbird Learning Method® and is launching the online version of their popular workshop The Secrets to Successful Spelling™ on October 31, 2015. Based in Adare, Co Limerick and Tralee Co Kerry, she works with clients on a one to one basis and can be contacted on 087-2996054 or through their website www.hummingbirdlearning.com

Dyslexia & Me: Richard Branson

At Hummingbird Learning Centre we always say that dyslexia is a wonderful thing – it’s just that it needs a different strategy for reading & writing.

I remember when the Virgin Megastore opened in Ireland. I was working in Dublin in the late 80’s early 90’s and it felt so cool,modern & kind of dangerous to be in there, browsing through the records. The store had caused all kinds of outrage because they were selling condoms openly on the counter, flouting the law at the time. The radio waves were jammed with moral condemnation, probably I suspect, to the delight of its owner, the maverick entrepreneur, Richard Branson.

Early in his life, Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Media, struggled with dyslexia. “I struggled with dyslexia when I was at school, long before it was widely known—my teachers just thought I was just stupid, lazy or both. Words just looked like jumbles of letters on the blackboard to me.”

Richard Branson has made a name for himself by mixing creative passion with business ideas. His first commercial success came after he founded his dream business: a record label. That company, called Virgin Records, produced the Mike Oldfield album “Tubular Bells,” which was later used in the film The Exorcist.

But that wasn’t Branson first business.  His first was a magazine that he started while still at school. The magazine was so successful that he left school early to continue with it.  I always think that this was incredible.  Here was a guy who struggled with reading and writing, yet he started a magazine, where his trade and tools were words!

In a blog post on Virgin’s website, Branson attributed the Virgin brand’s success to his dyslexia: “However, there are still many dyslexics out there, especially young people, who feel held back by their condition. I used my dyslexia to my advantage and learned to delegate those tasks I wasn’t so good it. This freed me up to look at the bigger picture, and is one of the main reasons I have been able to expand the Virgin brand into so many different areas.”

That ability to see the ‘big picture’ is one of the many positive attributes of dyslexia.

There are many, many talented dyslexics out there,” Branson wrote. “In fact, some of the most creative people happen to have the condition.”  One of his ‘big picture’ ideas really couldn’t be any bigger – he created a company to make commercial SPACE travel a reality!

In addition, Richard Branson owns his own train company, an airline, a media group and even a Caribbean island, but it’s not all about making money.  He takes a different approach to customer care.  He advocates for looking after your staff first, then they will look after the customers. “I have always believed that the way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers, and that people flourish when they are praised.” “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”

Branson also knows the value of making mistakes, something people who do dyslexia often find difficult: “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over. You learn by doing, and by falling over, and it’s because you fall over that you learn to save yourself from falling over.

He credits dyslexia with another of his signature management techniques: the habit of always taking notes. He writes in his 2014 book “The Virgin Way” that he learned as a child that if he ever had a chance at remembering anything, he’d need to jot it down. To this day, he says he carries a notebook everywhere.

The handwritten note habit has come in handy in management, negotiation, and even legal situations — he’s submitted his notebooks as evidence in lawsuits, he says.

It’s one of the “most powerful tools” in his “bag of business tricks,” Branson writes.

Dyslexia, Branson claims, actually made him a better manager, he wrote in his 2012 book “Like a Virgin,” and it became what he considers his “greatest strength.”

October is Dyslexia Awareness Month

#DyslexiaAwarenessMonth #DyslexiaAwarenessWeek

This month is International Dyslexia Awareness Month & here in Ireland, this week is Dyslexia Awareness Week.

Whenever someone tells me that they are dyslexic, I always say ‘Hi Dyslexic, I’m Elaine’.  Usually they’ll look at me quizzically and say ‘no – I have dyslexia’, to which I reply with ‘great, show it to me’. With their patience beginning to grow thin, they will explain that they have it in their head but I’m curious, so I want to know where in their head they have it. ‘In my brain’ they practically shout at me but I’m tenacious, I want to know specifically where they have it and how do they know that they have it and when do they know that they have it.

Interestingly, they are usually only aware of it when reading, writing or spelling.  The rest of the time they are completely unaware that they are doing dyslexia.  That is it – you are not dyslexic! Dyslexia is something that you do!

Dyslexia is a pattern that you run and because it is something that you do naturally, you are really unaware of it. You are unaware of all the wonderful abilities dyslexia brings to you because it’s just a part of you.  People who do dyslexia can be incredible problem solvers and innovators. They are fantastic with machinery and engineering.  They are amazing crafts people, golfers, builders and snooker players because they can see angles and potential in lumps of rock and clay.

This very ability though, is not a great strategy to run when reading, writing & spelling.  The ability to move & manipulate images in your head, means that you can also do this with words & letters.  Words & letters however, must remain visable, be still and keep their shape in order for us to read, write and spell.  So a person who does dyslexia needs a different strategy to be able to do this with ease.

In school, the curriculum is taught with a massive emphasis on phonics – even though English is not a particularly phonetic language.  It works reasonably well for most children but for others it doesn’t. They need a completely different strategy, one that compliments their natural abilities, rather than shoehorning them into a size that doesn’t fit.  Yes if you push hard enough, they can squeeze into phonics, but they will be hobbling along for the rest of their lives.

A visual strategy, such as the Hummingbird Learning Method® where they learn to control their images, works like magic for people who do dyslexia and indeed for anyone who struggles with spelling.  The beauty of a visual strategy is that it works for every language as it doesn’t depend on sounds, so the student’s Irish, French, Spanish, Japanese, or any other language also improves.

So remember – Dyslexia is a wonderful gift to have, it is just not the best strategy to run when reading, writing or spelling.  Dyslexia is simply something you do – it’s not who you are.

If you , or someone you know is struggling with Dyslexia, please let them know about us.  We are in Adare & Tralee.  If they are too far to travel (people come to us from all over), let them know about our online course, The Secrets to Successful Spelling™.  It will shortly be available.  Just email me at elaine@hummingbirdlearning.com & I will put them on my notification list so that they will be among the first to know when it is launched & can avail of the special launch price.

Have a great week,

Elaine

Why Meaning is So Important for Spelling

When my boys were in primary school, they had an English book that was used for reading and spelling.  It was different to the type of reader that I had in school (who is old enough to remember the Maura, Seán and Rusty books).  Their English book was more of a workbook.  Along the left hand side were random words chosen simply because they were phonetically similar. Spelling homework was to learn off the words.  It was pretty easy to remember them, in the short term, because they all had the same sound.

Understanding what the word meant wasn’t really part of the process, but without meaning, learning how to spell the word is worthless.  Being able to use the word again, in the appropriate context, is an essential part of learning to spell. It is also an important aid in reading and composition. Why else would we need to do it?

In order to understand what a word means you have to either make a visual still image of it or create a contextual mini movie in your memory.  Creating this means that in the future when reading the word, for a fraction of a nano-second, that image pops back into your head and you have understanding.

This skill allows you to expand your vocabulary and comprehension.  It allows you learn new languages quickly and easily. Like all skills it must be learned and honed.  Controlling your images for spelling and comprehension is essential.  It is easy to make an image for nouns.  Imagine a dog – easy.  For abstract words it is more complicated but once mastered it too becomes easy.  This is where internal mini movies come into their own.

A good Thesaurus dictionary is a vital item in every home.  I think they are a wonderful way to connect words of similar meaning to the same internal image. If you come across a new word to spell and are unsure of the meaning, look it up in the Thesaurus.  Chances are that you already have an internal picture of another word that has a similar meaning to the new word.  Now all you do is tag the new word on to the same image.

Some skills are learned to do something that lasts for a short period of time.  Learning how to put meaning behind every word is a skill that will make spelling easy for the rest of your life.

Elaine Sparling is the creator of the Hummingbird Learning Method® and is about to launch the popular Secrets to Successful Spelling™ workshop, online, at the end of August. Based in Adare, Co Limerick, where she works with clients on a one to one basis, she can be contacted on 087-2996054 or through their website http://www.hummingbirdlearning.com

The Chaos (or why English should not be taught phonetically)

English is a difficult language to learn, not least because of the contradictions in pronunciation,  and yet children are still taught it phonetically.  This poem ‘The Chaos’ demonstrates the irregularity of spelling and pronunciation in English.  It was written by Gerard Nolst Trenité (1870 – 1946). Have a bit of fun and read it out loud.  I know its a little long, but it is totally worth it! I bet you will discover things about the English language that you never realised before.

The Chaos

 A poem on English Pronunciation by G Nolst Trenité

Dearest creature in creation

Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse

Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.

I will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy;

Tear in eye, your dress you’ll tear;
Queer, fair seer, hear my prayer.

Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
Just compare heart, hear and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word.

Sword and sward, retain and Britain
(Mind the latter how it’s written).
Made has not the sound of bade,
Say–said, pay–paid, laid but plaid.

Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as vague and ague,
But be careful how you speak,
Say: gush, bush, steak, streak, break, bleak ,

Previous, precious, fuchsia, via
Recipe, pipe, studding-sail, choir;
Woven, oven, how and low,

Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe.

Say, expecting fraud and trickery:
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,
Branch, ranch, measles, topsails, aisles,
Missiles, similes, reviles.

Wholly, holly, signal, signing,
Same, examining, but mining,
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far.

From “desire”: desirable–admirable from “admire”,

Lumber, plumber, bier, but brier,
Topsham, brougham, renown, but known,
Knowledge, done, lone, gone, none, tone,

One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel.
Gertrude, German, wind and wind,
Beau, kind, kindred, queue, mankind,

Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather,
Reading, Reading, heathen, heather.
This phonetic labyrinth
Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth, plinth.

Have you ever yet endeavoured
To pronounce revered and severed,
Demon, lemon, ghoul, foul, soul,
Peter, petrol and patrol?

Billet does not end like ballet;
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.

Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.

Banquet is not nearly parquet,
Which exactly rhymes with khaki.
Discount, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward,

Ricocheted and crocheting, croquet?
Right! Your pronunciation’s OK.
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Is your r correct in higher?
Keats asserts it rhymes Thalia.
Hugh, but hug, and hood, but hoot,
Buoyant, minute, but minute.

Say abscission with precision,
Now: position and transition;
Would it tally with my rhyme
If I mentioned paradigm?

Twopence, threepence, tease are easy,
But cease, crease, grease and greasy?
Cornice, nice, valise, revise,
Rabies, but lullabies.

Of such puzzling words as nauseous,
Rhyming well with cautious, tortious,
You’ll envelop lists, I hope,
In a linen envelope.

Would you like some more? You’ll have it!
Affidavit, David, davit.
To abjure, to perjure. Sheik
Does not sound like Czech but ache.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, loch, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed but vowed.

Mark the difference, moreover,
Between mover, plover, Dover.
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice,

Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, penal, and canal,
Wait, surmise, plait, promise, pal,

Suit, suite, ruin. Circuit, conduit
Rhyme with “shirk it” and “beyond it”,
But it is not hard to tell
Why it’s pall, mall, but Pall Mall.

Muscle, muscular, gaol, iron,
Timber, climber, bullion, lion,
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor,

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
Has the a of drachm and hammer.
Pussy, hussy and possess,
Desert, but desert, address.

Golf, wolf, countenance, lieutenants
Hoist in lieu of flags left pennants.
Courier, courtier, tomb, bomb, comb,
Cow, but Cowper, some and home.

“Solder, soldier! Blood is thicker“,
Quoth he, “than liqueur or liquor“,
Making, it is sad but true,
In bravado, much ado.

Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Pilot, pivot, gaunt, but aunt,

Font, front, wont, want, grand and grant.

Arsenic, specific, scenic,
Relic, rhetoric, hygienic.
Gooseberry, goose, and close, but close,
Paradise, rise, rose, and dose.

Say inveigh, neigh, but inveigle,
Make the latter rhyme with eagle.
Mind! Meandering but mean,
Valentine and magazine.

And I bet you, dear, a penny,
You say mani-(fold) like many,
Which is wrong. Say rapier, pier,
Tier (one who ties), but tier.

Arch, archangel; pray, does erring
Rhyme with herring or with stirring?
Prison, bison, treasure trove,
Treason, hover, cover, cove,

Perseverance, severance. Ribald
Rhymes (but piebald doesn’t) with nibbled.
Phaeton, paean, gnat, ghat, gnaw,
Lien, psychic, shone, bone, pshaw.

Don’t be down, my own, but rough it,
And distinguish buffet, buffet;
Brood, stood, roof, rook, school, wool, boon,
Worcester, Boleyn, to impugn.

Say in sounds correct and sterling
Hearse, hear, hearken, year and yearling.
Evil, devil, mezzotint,
Mind the z! (A gentle hint.)

Now you need not pay attention
To such sounds as I don’t mention,
Sounds like pores, pause, pours and paws,
Rhyming with the pronoun yours;

Nor are proper names included,
Though I often heard, as you did,
Funny rhymes to unicorn,
Yes, you know them, Vaughan and Strachan.

No, my maiden, coy and comely,
I don’t want to speak of Cholmondeley.
No. Yet Froude compared with proud

Is no better than McLeod.

But mind trivial and vial,
Tripod, menial, denial,
Troll and trolley, realm and ream,
Schedule, mischief, schism, and scheme.

Argil, gill, Argyll, gill. Surely
May be made to rhyme with Raleigh,
But you’re not supposed to say
Piquet rhymes with sobriquet.

Had this invalid invalid
Worthless documents? How pallid,
How uncouth he, couchant, looked,
When for Portsmouth I had booked!

Zeus, Thebes, Thales, Aphrodite,
Paramour, enamoured, flighty,
Episodes, antipodes,
Acquiesce, and obsequies.

Please don’t monkey with the geyser,
Don’t peel ‘taters with my razor,
Rather say in accents pure:
Nature, stature and mature.

Pious, impious, limb, climb, glumly,
Worsted, worsted, crumbly, dumbly,
Conquer, conquest, vase, phase, fan,
Wan, sedan and artisan.

The th will surely trouble you
More than r, ch or w.
Say then these phonetic gems:
Thomas, thyme, Theresa, Thames.

Thompson, Chatham, Waltham, Streatham,
There are more but I forget ’em–
Wait! I’ve got it: Anthony,
Lighten your anxiety.

The archaic word albeit
Does not rhyme with eight-you see it;
With and forthwith, one has voice,
One has not, you make your choice.

Shoes, goes, does *. Now first say: finger;
Then say: singer, ginger, linger.
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, age,

Hero, heron, query, very,
Parry, tarry fury, bury,
Dost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loth,
Job, Job, blossom, bosom, oath.

Faugh, oppugnant, keen oppugners,
Bowing, bowing, banjo-tuners
Holm you know, but noes, canoes,
Puisne, truism, use, to use?

Though the difference seems little,
We say actual, but victual,
Seat, sweat, chaste, caste, Leigh, eight, height,
Put, nut, granite, and unite.

Reefer does not rhyme with deafer,
Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Dull, bull, Geoffrey, George, ate, late,
Hint, pint, senate, but sedate.

Gaelic, Arabic, pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific;
Tour, but our, dour, succour, four,
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.

Say manoeuvre, yacht and vomit,
Next omit, which differs from it
Bona fide, alibi
Gyrate, dowry and awry.

Sea, idea, guinea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean,
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion with battalion,
Rally with ally; yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay!

Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, receiver.
Never guess-it is not safe,
We say calves, valves, half, but Ralf.

Starry, granary, canary,
Crevice, but device, and eyrie,
Face, but preface, then grimace,
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.

Bass, large, target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, oust, joust, and scour, but scourging;
Ear, but earn; and ere and tear
Do not rhyme with here but heir.

Mind the o of off and often
Which may be pronounced as orphan,
With the sound of saw and sauce;
Also soft, lost, cloth and cross.

Pudding, puddle, putting. Putting?
Yes: at golf it rhymes with shutting.
Respite, spite, consent, resent.
Liable, but Parliament.

Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, clerk and jerk,
Asp, grasp, wasp, demesne, cork, work.

A of valour, vapid vapour,
S of news (compare newspaper),
G of gibbet, gibbon, gist,
I of antichrist and grist,

Differ like diverse and divers,
Rivers, strivers, shivers, fivers.
Once, but nonce, toll, doll, but roll,
Polish, Polish, poll and poll.

Pronunciation-think of Psyche!-
Is a paling, stout and spiky.
Won’t it make you lose your wits
Writing groats and saying “grits”?

It’s a dark abyss or tunnel
Strewn with stones like rowlock, gunwale,
Islington, and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Don’t you think so, reader, rather,
Saying lather, bather, father?
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, bough, cough, hough, sough, tough??

Hiccough has the sound of sup…
My advice is: GIVE IT UP!

Use Your Brain For a Change

One of my favourite quotes is by Dr Richard Bandler and it is “When you want new results, it requires new thinking”.  Thinking is just something we do.  We are always thinking about something.  Even when we are asleep our brain is still working.

We are born with this amazing inbuilt computer but unfortunately it didn’t come with a set of instructions.  We have to learn how to use it as we go along and mostly we use it out of habits we have formed from watching and listening to others, so if we want to change those habits we have to think differently and to think differently we have to use our brain to get that change.

Your Brain

There is a lot of talk about people being right-brained and left-brained.  You might have taken one of those quizzes online to determine which you are.  The assumption is that a person who is ‘left-brained’ is more logical, analytical and objective and suitable for jobs such as accountant, solicitor or programmer.  The ‘right-brained’ person is said to be more creative, intuitive, thoughtful and subjective and might want to be an actor, graphic designer or therapist.

The reality is that people are not one or the other, they are not ‘right-brained’ or ‘left-brained’.  The theory grew out of the work of Nobel Prize winner Roger W Sperry.  He discovered that cutting the corpus callosum, the structure that connects the two hemispheres of the brain, reduced or eliminated seizures in people with epilepsy.

However, patients who had undergone the procedure also had new symptoms after the communication pathway between the two sides of the brain was cut. Some patients found that they could no longer name objects that were processed by the right side of the brain, yet they could still name objects processed by the left side of the brain. This led Sperry to suggest that language was controlled by the left side of the brain.

However, later research has shown that the brain is not nearly as neatly divided as this. The brain actually works best when both sides of the brain are engaged at the same time. Neuroscientists have found that the two sides of the brain work together to perform a wide variety of tasks and the two sides communicate through the corpus callosum.

In a study of over 1000 participants by the University of Utah, it was revealed that while activity was sometimes higher on one side or the other in certain critical regions, on average both sides of the brain were essentially equal in their activity. Dr Jeff Anderson, the study’s lead researcher explains “It’s absolutely true that some brain functions occur in one or other side of the brain. Language tends to be on the left, attention more to the right, but people don’t tend to have a stronger left or right sided brain network.  It seems to be determined more connection by connection”.

This makes the corpus callosum key in using our brain to evoke and strengthen new thinking.  Mid line exercises help to make those connections.  We need both sides of our brain working together to create strong neuropathways, making focus and recall much better and easier.

So the next time you take one of those quizzes, know that it’s just a bit of fun. Now I must go and check my horoscope.