Confused misunderstood English letters when communicating.

August 20th, 2009

More companies are hiring more employees speaking more than one language, or at home phone representatives or outsourcers that are non-English speaking natives. We may spend more time struggling with combined factors of language barriers, poor quality cell phones, VOIPs, long distance phone carriers, and possibly delayed satellite transmission. To ease the pain of communication when trying to spell names, emails, or street addresses consider the following confusing similar sounding letters and tips to improve being understood.

Even at times when you aren’t speaking to a foreigner over the phone and experienced hissing static, getting cut off, loud puffs of air, a fast talker and speaker phone delay sounding like you’re in the distance – you can relate. Or how about talking to someone on a cell phone driving or walking and losing signal?

Tidbit:  A new learned language may will reveal an accent if the person learns a new language after the age of twelve. Former habitual training will take time to switch a learned comfortable position of the mouth, lips, teeth and tongue to be performed correctly to express articulately and almost accent free.

Tidbit: Adult learning new languages use assimilation methods to do their best to try to mimic a corresponding sound. Some sounds do not match perfectly. It is a fine line to try to correct them, as they may feel embarrassed. Keep in mind, it is not unusual for a foreigner to smile and giggle when they are feeling uncomfortable or embarrassment.

Letters, alphabets, phonetics, and pronunciation vary across all languages and regions within countries known as dialects. Similarly to the difference between a northeastern U.S. accent trying to say wash and it comes out warsh.

A tip to use when trying to understand the specific following letters is to use it in a word to spell. Just like contestants in a Spelling Bee – For example, A as in apple, B as in boy, or C as in Cat. When speaking to non-native speakers use smaller simpler elementary positive words to be more understood and save time. Avoid negative connotations of the pairing of the word with letters, as analytical minds will try to decipher if you are being rude. For example, don’t use the letter S for Silent as this gives off a bad sarcastic message to have the person talking to you to shut up.

 

C, T, E, V, B, Z, P, D and sometimes I

The commonality between all of these letters is the last sound they make that sound like the English letter E. Coupled with what seems like the second language of the United States – Spanish. In Spanish, the English letter I is actually pronounced like the English word E and the letter E sounds like the word A. A note to remember, many Asian or Eastern language alphabets don’t even include the phonetic difference between B, V, D, T, and P. Even amongst our American culture TH can sound like D.

 

M, N, F, S, X

Try to say M or N fast on the phone and its difficult to tell the difference.  Plus, exotic societies and mommies may have deliberately spelled a name differently in order to create a uniqueness associated with their child. There had been a time while I worked on the customer service phone line; I spelled the name Naomi the most common spelling I knew. I spent ten minutes searching and sparing the poor woman from talking as she had congestion and a hoarse voice. Meanwhile the computer kept beeping:  no record found. I, like many of our new generations, spell our names differently.  My own first name is spelled with an E and not an I. In fact this was the case, her name actually has two N’s and not an M. The customer explained her mother was from West Africa.

S, F, X isn’t initials for a super graphic show, they’re letters that really sound the same especially over the phone or when you can’t see the person’s lips. X is a challenging word to find a word for as most of us instantly think of a Xylophone but stick with X-Ray as a shorter word. F for flower not fight and S for super not stupid. In French the S is often silent. Be careful of also the prolonged hiss of an S on a phone with a lot of static, as this is unpleasant against the ears.

Tidbit: Consider this, when in a loud environment don’t raise your voice volume  as you get closer to another person’s ears. This can damage the eardrum. The closer in distance people are, the less necessary it is to raise your volume.

 

Q, U, G, J, H

The first two are usually always used together in English words, the U always after the Q. If cut off or lack of emphasis on the k sound in the Q, they sound the same. In some languages there is not a way to similarly associate the specific letter of Q but speakers match the sound more closely with the letter K. The three letters, G, J, and H are commonly spoken the same in Latin languages as they may say all of them with a breathy H in the beginning like saying Hey, Jose or even pronounced like a Y. In Spanish the H may sound silent and sometimes in Asian languages too. Many non-native English speakers may misunderstand the true pronunciation of G and J with words as the beginning sound sounds the same to them when learning the alphabet. J as in Japan and G as in Great are pretty understood simplified English words to connect with. Notice the two words matched with the letter has different sounds.

 Tidbit: It is also thought of as rude in non-western cultures to call out Hey to get people’s attentions.

 

A, K, L, R

The first two letters listed above are A and K which ends the same -an open mouth syllable, but if the first part of the K is possibly cut off, you’re left to guess it’s an A. And as mentioned before the letter A actually sounds like the proper pronunciation of the letter E in Spanish. Also, In Spanish the word that sounds like K, spelled like Que means what. Don’t be alarmed if the Latin speaker will just repeat themselves back after you say that.

Asian cultures may typically use the letter L and R interchangeably even in their own language. In Korean it’s the same character or letter that represent both sounds. That is why the running joke showing Asians speak words starting with L  as a R- Lee, Yee, Lucy, and you been Toe rather than Told.

 -Lenda Hand

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