Say Bee!

How do you say "horizon"? Is it supposed to be hawri-zan, horai-zan, hawri-zawn or horai-zawn? That was the question of our session yesterday.

We realized that we have so many different accents of our own, that we don't even know the right way of saying words. So we started to learn how to pronounce. We started with the Dictionary pronunciation key that gives you the different sounds associated with vowels and consonants. below is the key taken from http://www.oxfordadvancedlearnersdictionary.com/pronunciation.html.

Consonants
p pen /pen/
b bad /bæd/
t tea /tiː/
d did /dɪd/
k cat /kæt/
ɡ get /ɡet/
tʃ chain /tʃeɪn/
dʒ jam /dʒæm/
f fall /fɔːl/
v van /væn/
θ thin /θɪn/
ð this /ðɪs/
s see /siː/
z zoo /zuː/
ʃ shoe /ʃuː/
ʒ vision /ˈvɪʒn/
h hat /hæt/
m man /mæn/
n now /naʊ/
ŋ sing /sɪŋ/
l leg /leɡ/
r red /red/
j yes /jes/
w wet /wet/

The symbol (r) indicates that British pronunciation will have /r/ only if a vowel sound follows directly at the beginning of the next word, as in far away; otherwise the /r/ is omitted. For American English, all the /r/ sounds should be pronounced.

/x/ represents a fricative sound as in /lɒx/ for Scottish loch, Irish lough.
Vowels and diphthongs
iː see /siː/
i happy /ˈhæpi/
ɪ sit /sɪt/
e ten /ten/
æ cat /kæt/
ɑː father /ˈfɑːðə(r)/
ɒ got /ɡɒt/ (British English)
ɔː saw /sɔː/
ʊ put /pʊt/
u actual /ˈæktʃuəl/
uː too /tuː/
V cup /kʌp/
ɜː fur /fɜː(r)/
ə about /əˈbaʊt/
eɪ say /seɪ/
əʊ go /ɡəʊ/ (British English)
oʊ go /ɡoʊ/ (American English)
aɪ my /maɪ/
ɔɪ boy /bɔɪ/
aʊ now /naʊ/
ɪə near /nɪə(r)/ (British English)
eə hair /heə(r)/ (British English)
ʊə pure /pjʊə(r)/ (British English)

The funny part was knowing about the British and American accents. Dog (in American accent) sounds so much like Daag (in hindi), and the funny sentence This Dog has a Daag made for a good laugh!

We tried to recognize the differences in the way words are spoken differently among us. One of our South Indian friends said "Only" as "one-ly", and another had a tough time saying Horizon. So that became the homework for the week.

At Unschool, we believe we can make that big difference by correcting these accent issues one small step at a time. Some of the great online sources to make a "Say Bee" out of you are:

1. Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary- by far the most dependable and authoritative one.
2. HowJSay.com- helps to see the word with the preceding and following words, and also translations into other languages like Hindi.
3. Okanagan College- for some great worksheets and online exercises
4. EnglishStudyDirect.com- gives a lot more links for better English learning online

We finally ended up singing (a bit of Karoake-style) a song...one of our favourites- That's The Way It Is by Celine Dion reading along its lyrics online.

Oh, and just in case you are wondering how to pronounce horizon, its something like harai-zun. Listen to it here.

Story about a plant in danger

One day my mother gave me money and said, "Go to the shop and buy some medicine for me." That time, my mother had a cold, so I went to the market. When I reached there, I heard a stranger talking in his mobile phone. He said that he along with his friends were going to cut a plant. I wanted to save that plant, so first, I bought the medicine and gave it to my mother. Then I told her the whole story, and my mother thought of a plan, which I liked. The plan was to first go to the shop again and follow the stranger. My father also came with me. We followed the stranger and reached the plant which was going to be cut by that man. My father could recognize him. He was his old classmate, so my father knew his phone number. Then he called that man and started scaring him. Then he told that he was going to call the police, and he did! So the police came and punicshed that man and gave us a reward of Rs. 1,000. This was a very special adventure for me, and I will never forget this.

(Story Contributed by Samruddhi, 9 years)

Water Tank Full Indicator

Today, the first prototype of one of the possible solutions to the Overhead Tank overflowing problem was built. More importantly, we were happy about the material used:

1. Old Bisleri (or any such 1 litre capacity) plastic water bottle
2. A cheap hard plastic ball a little less in diameter than the water bottle
3. Aluminum Foil to wrap the ball
4. Some electrical wire
5. Bucket
6. LED/ Alarm
7. Any type of Batteries
8. Cardboard or plastic disc 
9. Thread 

Water Tank Full Indicator

How to do it?

1. Cut off the bottle’s base (under adult supervision)
2. Wrap the aluminum foil on the plastic ball.
3. Strip off both ends of 2 pieces (about a foot long) of an electric wire
4. Tie one end of one wire to the ball with thread tightly while ensuring that the stripped end is touching the aluminum foil.
5. Cut the cardboard/ plastic in a small circular shape and punch a small hole close to its centre.
6. Through a small hole in the bottle (closer to its base), insert the other wire into the hole in the cardboard disc.
7. Wrap aluminum foil on the disc ensuring that the stripped off end is kept closely in contact with the foil.
8. Fix up the simple electric circuit as (a) Battery (+) --> disk (b) Battery (-) --> Resistor --> LED(#1), and (c) LED(#2) --> Ball
9. Test the circuit by touching the ball and the disc together to glow the LED.
10. Now dip the inverted bottle (without the cap) in the bucket and hold it close to the top.
11. Fill the bucket and the ball will move up when the water level rises. Once the ball touches the disc, the LED will glow indicating the bucket is full.
12. The narrow mouth of the bottle prevents the ball from dropping out when the bucket is empty.