Today we are going to look again at one of your comments from my YouTube channel. This time about the IPA, the international phonetic alphabet. Unfortunately we are not talking about the type of beer known as IPA or India Pale Ale.
IPA is Useless
Bryan Zhang says: “IPA? That’s useless and unnecessary.”
In a way Brian you are absolutely right. IPA is not necessary for learning English. Most native speakers don’t know anything about it.
What IPA is, is just a tool for helping us to look specifically at pronunciation. It can be helpful if you are interested in breaking pronunciation down into its smaller parts. Or if you are having problems with a particular sound.
But if you don’t find it helpful don’t waste any time on it.
Don’t waste time on IPA
Sometimes I get students asking me very complicated questions about phonetics. I want to tell them that if they are studying English as a second language they don’t need to go too deep into phonetics. Only the basics will be helpful. If they are staying Phonetics itself then they are watching the wrong videos. Because this channel and my website are about helping people learn English as a Second Language. For that you only need to use the international phonetic alphabet and phonetics as reference when you have problems. You dont need to study the whole subject in too much detail.
So thanks Bryan. I can understand your frustration. I hope you found this post helpful or reassuring.
If it was you should check out some of my other videos and subscribe to my youtube channel and mailing list via the website, to keep up to date with new videos and features from The English Language Club. It would also be really helpful to me and your friends if you “Like” and ‘share’ it with them on the social media.
