Quick thoughts on learning the English language

Joe here. This posting has not been vetted by Wendy. I am posting on my lunch hour at work.

I’ve come to appreciate just how hard it is for someone to learn to read and speak English as a second language. Consider the book I was having him read to me the other night. It included the sentence “The kite flew high in the sky.” Simple to us, but as he struggled to read it, a light went on which allowed me to see it from his perspective.

First, they have no sound in the Russian language which is similar to our “th” sound. So those words are difficult to pronounce.
Second, the Russian language has no long i sound.
Third, the “e” in kite is silent.
Fourth, the word flew rhymes with glue, two, to, and too; tell me how you can teach solid rules for pronunciation with words like that.
Fifth, in the word “high” the "gh" is silent and does not sound like the "gh" in the word “tough or the "gh" in the word ghost.
Sixth, the word sky contains the letter "s". In Russian, the sound the "s" makes is represented by their letter "c".
Seventh, also in the word sky is the letter "y". In Russian, that letter has an “”oo” sound.

So in a sentence containing 7 simple, common words, none longer than 4 letters, there are at least 7 issues a Russian child must face before reading it correctly.

One other quick note before I leave off the blog: we had a snowfall this weekend with about 3 inches on Saturday and 5-6 inches on Sunday. In the midst of the snow on Sunday, Kolya pulled out his bike and attempted to make his way up the cul-d-sac. Ten feet later, he realized the futility of his efforts and returned the bike to the garage. I think he's puttng snow tires on his Christmas list.