At some point in our lives, we are all forced to sit through a lesson on something we do not care for at all, yet that particular thing later turns out to be very beneficial to us. For me, this happened in my second year at university. It came in the form of a phonetics class, uniformly the most dreaded course everyone studying American or British Studies has to sit through – and pass. The final exam is split in three parts: 1. a pronunciation exam 2. a theoretical exam 3. a transcription exam.

The first should be self-explanatory. For those completely unfamiliar with phonetics, the second takes a closer look at such concepts as sound production, articulation, word stress, etc. In short, any and all things that go into the production of sounds and how they can be explained, categorized, produced, etc.

And for the final part of the exam, we all had the dubious pleasure of studying the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) and then transcribing an English text in phonetic script. Sounds easier than it is, especially if you’re not a native speaker and may not even know how some of the words you’re supposed to be transcribing should be pronounced correctly. The failure rate for that class, as a result, is a whopping 80%. Before you applaud me for triumphing despite the odds: I did, in fact, not make the 20% cut of this statistic.

But let me start at the beginning of my classes. Despite all warnings and thoughts of doom, I truly enjoyed learning the phonetic symbols and transcribing texts. Throughout the entire semester I whiled away my time in all other classes transcribing lists of words I made my friends come up with for me. As a result, I became pretty darned good at it. The transcription part, therefore (for most people the greatest hurdle), proved to be no problem whatsoever. My pronunciation practiced in class also seemed to be coming along nicely; every text or practice exercise I read got barely any criticism from my professor, while others had to repeat themselves over and over. What tripped me up was the theoretical aspect of phonetics. All those phonemes, allophones, the different cavities and their roles as principal resonators… It’s interesting learning what actually goes into the production of sounds and how they are classified, but most of it still went over my head.

It’s obvious then which part of the exam was the straw that broke the camel’s back, right? Yes, I did indeed fail my pronunciation exam. My friends – even those too frank to lie – assured me they didn’t understand how it could have happened either, but there we were. For the first time in my life I had failed an exam (one that I was 100% positive I had aced, no less). As this part was the pre-requisite for both other tests (I did really well on the transcription, somehow mangled my way through the theory and passed that as well), I found myself sitting through the same classes in the next semester all over again. While it was sometimes annoying and tiring, I learned a lot about phonetics and, as a result, languages.

All of a sudden, that phonetic transcription next to a foreign word was more than just a rough guide to its pronunciation. It offered a detailed answer, even without a soundbite to accompany the vocabulary. Learning more about word stress and the production of sounds also left me with a greater awareness of writing and speech. Take an example we encounter every day: Drawn-out exclamations and how they are translated into writing (e.g. Facebook statuses or tweets). Incredulity at a statement should elicit a ‘Whaaaaaat?’, not a ‘Wwhhaaattttt?’ Try saying it out loud. While stressing the ‘w’ may be possible, if a bit forced, repeating the (silent) ‘h’ is just absurd. The numerous ‘t’s at the end of the word would also garner you strange looks if spoken out loud as written above. Among the consonants, the ‘t’ constitutes a plosive (short, abruptly ending sound); stressing it out is physically impossible, you would have to repeat the same letter over and over again. Vowels, in contrast, can be elongated as much as your air supplies allow. Now, instead of being, like, ‘aaahhhhaaa’, you should be more, like, ‘ahaaaa’. Got it?

There’s so much more phonetics can teach you. It taught me that I really need to work on my pronunciation which became, if not the reason, at least a decisive factor in deciding to spend some time in an English-speaking country. You also become more aware of language, sounds and written words. And if none of these things interest you, then maybe the enormous help it will be in acquiring a foreign language is incentive enough? If I’ve managed to catch your interest, take a look at the International Phonetic Alphabet as explained by omniglot.com. In their link collection at the bottom of the page you will find an introduction to phonology, lessons, fonts and many additional materials – everything to help you get started on your first lesson in phonetics.