German EFL learner homophones

[mothwing]

One of the learners in my tutoring centre has the most interesting pronunciation. She was reading a text the other day and it took a while for me to figure out what she was talking about.





Oh. And "sought", forgot about that one. I think she was talking about a sword, about which she had thoughts. But I can't be certain.

Comments

[crocky-wock.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. And I stand by what I said. This kind of "expressing a lack of understanding", especially if repeated or emphasised on a permanent basis, is an act of making you feel good about yourself (not you in particular, people in general) through pointing out others' shortcomings.

I guess it's a question of how and especially how often. I can also tell from your OP and other posts that you are mostly fascinated by this, so context plays a role, too.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

I know that ticks you off in me, too - though I usually only reserve my expressed incredulity for people who can really, really be expected to know better - like uni students who don't know that we're indeed in a solar system. And even with those, I wouldn't express that sentiment in front of them rather than patiently explain.

So, er, in conclusion, I'd like cookies for keeping it together before cracking up about it out of earshot, plz. :D

Students' mistakes (especially students' mistakes at a tutoring centre) are interesting rather than funny, though. It's also a way to see what kind of thing falls through the cracks at school, because there are definitely patterns.

[crocky-wock.livejournal.com]

I find that fascinating, too.

*bakes wife cookies*