Re: CHAT: Chinese romanization

Raymond A. Brown wrote:
> Yes, the same here - with the same frenchified final stress.  It really
> makes me squirm also.  Why does French have to be the first foreign
> language most of our kids learn? Why do otherwise sane adults think:
> foreign is not English; French is foreign; therefore, if it's foreign it
> must be like French?
I'm not sure what most kids here in the US take. Spanish is pretty
popular in my area (but then there are a lot of native Spanish
speakers too); the high school offers German for some reason too :)

> I remember once long years ago a pupil trying to read Latin; 'semper'
> ['sEmpEr] came across as [sa~pei] - yep, frenchified with English
> diphthongal pronunciation of /e:/ !
Hehe, my mom (who took French in high school) does this with Spanish
words sometimes, especially if they look like French ones, like
"entre" and "entender." I even find myself doing it occasionally even
though I've never taken French. Must have rubbed off :D