110: Reflection Week 2 Learning

[Carly DeFaria]

In learning my first few language tasks I have been relying heavily on the Mango Language App. It has been very helpful and I especially enjoy the feature that allows me to record myself and compare the sound bits to the correct pronunciation. I have discovered that there are many allophones that English speakers consider to be one phoneme but Hindi speakers consider to be two separate phonemes. For example ट [ta] and ठ [tha]  (imagine the h as a superscript indicating aspiration) are different phonemes. It is very difficult for me to hear the difference between these two sounds but I know that learning it will be integral to mastering this language. Some words are exactly the same except for aspirations on certain sounds, making differentiating these phonemes very important for understanding and communicating. Taking a linguistics class has really helped me to recognize that these differences exist and Thomas is very helpful in attempting to differentiate certain sounds. However, when I have Bishan or Adil try and say the different sounds for me, they usually end up sounding the same. Also when I try and say the two sounds myself they end up sounding the same, even to my teachers thus I must not be making them correctly. That being said, the Mango app displays what you are supposed to say using actual Hindi letters. I think it will help me to recognize the different phonemes if they are transcribed using different letters. All in all practice with these sounds is definitely required.