[alzaeem]

"Glottal stops are everywhere in English but we are not trained to hear them, so a long portion of one of your first Arabic classes will be devoted to blowing your mind with the fact that English words like 'apple' and 'elegant' do not start with a vowel."

Is this for real?! Do non native speakers of Arabic (and similar languages) not hear the common sound at the start of words like apple, elegant, ignite, umpire? I find that hard to believe since they are saying it.

[graeme]

No, at least for me, Canadian English, I hear them as starting with: ap, el, ig, um

So sound wise they all start with a glottal stop that we don't notice as it isn't written as such?

[yorwba]

You may very well pronounce them without a glottal stop. If you whisper the words, you might be able to hear it as a click in your throat.

[graeme]

I tried that and I sounded a bit like an exaggerated latin accent from a movie. Sort of like a faintly pronounced h in front. Is that a glottal stop?

[fouronnes3]

No it's not like the initial h in 'hospital' at all. It's closer to you pronounce the 't' in 'batman' with a Boston accent.

[idlewords]

They start with 'ap, 'el, 'ig, 'um, where the apostrophe is the tiniest catch in the throat. You can pronounce them without the catch, but to our ears the difference is inaudible, because we don't make a distinction. Arabs do.