Phonetique

Today we had to read a report of a British study that established that penguins do not fall over backwards when a helicopter passes overhead. We then had a test of "transcription orthographique", where you have to listen to a passage read on tape and write it out "perfectly". Thankfully you can use a dictionary, though there isn't a huge amount of time.

It has been revealed that I lack one nasal vowel, and have been substituting another for it. I have spent almost all afternoon saying "vacances dans un an".

Also I have a distressing tendency to lose my terminal "r". "Vacances en voiture dans un an!"

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