Sitaram says: I christen thee - EPRODAP
Now go forth and be a light unto all nations....
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A student in China asks: When I'm reading an English language novel, those place names are hard to pronounce, and I cant find them in the dictionary. Can you tell me what can I do?
Sitaram says:
Well, I suppose, if I had a microphone.... or find an english speaking person with microphone,... and then they could pronounce such words or make wav files or au files.... and send them, with recordings
Student: Then how do you know how to pronounce them if you havent looked them up in a dictionary
We just hear people in media pronounce.... I know how to say Godel, the mathematician... because I once heard it...
It is a German umlaut... like Goethe....
If you hear me, then you will know...
Student: ok, then no way for me
Well, if I got a microphone, and you had speakers...
then, it is easy
Student: But there are too many such names, I cant ask you every one of them
Well, you could try, and I could try to answer.. you could make a list, email me... it takes several seconds to pronounce each new word
If you think you are interested... I will look into getting a microphone...
All Chinese students of English could create a database of pronunciation... and volunteers around the world of native English speaking people could email wav files... and thereby, many students of English would hear how words are pronounced
Student: A lot of my classmates are confused with thse proper name pronuncation.
Well... tell them of my idea... to organize on the internet a cooperative between English native speakers and Chinese students of English.... to build a database of pronunciation using wav files ....
then... we write up and post on literary forum.... and ask advice... even the person Admin, who runs this forum... may have ideas on how to implement such a project
Each student submits via email a list of words to pronounce.... a program checks the list to see what words are not in database.... and posts words to be pronounced... and then english native speaker volunteers,... pronunce words in wav... and then email wav to someplace where a program adds to wav database
Then, students of English all over world have access to difficult words... to hear them pronounced by native speakers.