Use your ears, not your eyes

Here is a conversation I heard in class the other day. I asked a student to use the vocabulary she had learned the previous week to tell another student about her hobby.She said, "I like sewing". The other student responded, "sewing? How do you spell it?"- "S-E-W - to sew"- "OK, to sew, like 'you'"- "No, like 'go'"- "Sorry? didn't you say S-E-W?"- "Yes, I did"- "But that's "u" like "few"It took a few minutes to convince her that in fact the correct pronunciation for "sew" ryhmes with "go". She didn't have any problem with the word when she first heard it, but as soon as she saw the way it was spelt, she couldn't pronounce it any more. We just can't help ourselves (I do it too with French words). Have a little trust in you teacher, he or she usually pronounces words correctly! I suggest that you learn the phonetic symbols for at least the vowel sounds. It doesn't take long, and it's a really inexpensive way to master English pronunciation. All you need is a dictionary that uses the international alphabet, and you will know how to pronounce any word in English. Get into the habit of taking notes in phonetic symbols, so you don't confused by all the spelling variations in English.You can see the phonetic alphabet on my site. There is also a link to a university phonetics lab, which is really good practice. If you're serious about learning English, you have to do it!