[asdasdasdasdwd]

This is true. While I learned English in the written form in my teens and was able to somewhat understand movies in English, I only became proficient in it in spoken form after I joined a guild in an online MMO game and everybody talked through TeamSpeak. Good times :)

[learner124]

The written form of English and the way words are pronounced are so different it must be a nightmare to learn in some ways. I can recall when I was progressing through school even often seeing written words that I had never heard before and having no idea to pronounce them and would ask someone and the answer would be like, oh that's a French word and the 'g' is silent ( for example a word like benign). It's actually pretty bizarre to think about it now but realizing this has given me even more respect for people who learn English as a second language. Honestly I kind of feel like the language could be simplified and made more efficient for future generations and non native speakers to learn.

[narag]

The hard part is that you have many vowels. In Spanish there are only five. Understanding is often done by elimination. If I can't discard a word because I can't tell if it's bar or bore or beard or bird or bear or beer, unless context helps, I'll simply stall.

That's why I consider native teachers to be the most powerful advantage. At school they insist too much in grammar, that's important, but the foundation is how the language sounds.

I hate movies with original language and subtitles. I've used them with subtitles also in English with great results to learn.

But nothing can replace a teacher that corrects your pronuntiation as you speak and repeats the right sounds as many times as you need.

Also when I'm watching a movie for pleasure, I like to watch and listen, not to read.

[jacobush]

After a while reading the subtitles becomes something done in an instant. Then you can listen

[narag]

A while? I've done it for years and still don't like it. I'm not saying I can't do it, just that it's super annoying for me. I don't enjoy visuals if I need to read. It's totally anti-usabilty.

[bobloblaw45]

It's funny because as American kids are learning to read and ask what a word is we are told "sound it out". It usually works. But it definitely doesn't work the other way around, trying to spell a word by how it sounds. I had a Portuguese friend online once that spelled "awesome", "hawsom" and we had a good laugh because he felt embarrassed but we had to assure him it's still spelled wrong but still sounds right if you read it out loud.

[fyfy18]

As a native English speaker I could understand dropping the "e", but where does the "h" come from?

[Al-Khwarizmi]

I guess it could come from the same place as in "hour", "honor", "honest", etc. :)

[ukoki]

H at the beginning of a word is silent in Portuguese (as in Spanish and Italian)