The English Language! A Conundrum.

SCHOOL IS BACK!

And that means students of all ages around the world are now in study mode.

But here is my vent for the day. I’m very glad that English was my first language and I pity those who must learn or teach English. If you teach English, for instance, how do you explain the various spellings of words that all sound the same?

Here are some examples—mote and cote so why moat, coat and boat—they all sound the same, but some have an ‘a” added in the middle whereas others have an e added at the end.  There is no special rule to explain this.

And what about Vane and Vein? And why is a horse’s mane spelled that way whereas the main person in the room is spelled in a different way. The same thing for a bridal veil and vale, a depression in land between hills or mountains.

These words that are spelled the same can also have different meanings and are called homonyms such as bark (a dog’s voice or the coating on a tree), bat (used in baseball or a creature flying in the air), bank (where you leave your money or the side of a river) and so on with more examples such as spring, current, tear, bow, wind, close and lead.

I could go on and on but I’m just glad I didn’t have to learn all these spellings, in addition to learning the meanings if I had come from elsewhere in the world where English was not my first language. I admire all the ESL teachers who I assume have their own secret methods for dealing with this. (My son-in-law is an ESL teacher and seems to know what he is doing. He’s very popular with his students.)

Then of course, even the good old rule of I before E except after C cannot be trusted either. What about the words receive, science, ancient, glacier and society? Plus, there are many ei words without a c such as weird, seize, weight and leisure to name but a few.

On a personal note, my daughter calls this “the happiest time of the year” but not because she was anxious to return to school as a child. It was, and still is, the time of year when she loved to go shopping for new notebooks, pens, pencils and now equipment for her own home office. I agree and I love it also. It’s the beginning of a new year, a fresh start. A time to clean out your office and blow the dust out of your mind.

A fresh start to learning can always be a challenge whether it’s the first day of school or the first day of university. Or just ‘the first day of something new.’ But it’s an opportunity to create, to learn something new, to socialize and to always be kind.

I love the English language despite all these different spellings. Probably one of the reasons I became a writer. Conquering the art of learning is half the fun.

Happy School Days!