Sorry that this reply is very emotive. I just find it astonishing that this kind of theory is popular in China. And I really want to state my view of how unreliable his explanations( or at least part of the explanations) of the words are so that if anyone agrees with my point of view would avoid him and his methodology.
PS: if the webmasters find this inappropriate, just delete this reply please
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Found a note-like thing from Baidu, and jumped to part of it.
It appears to me that this guy is not that professional as well. The 4th point, simplifying roots is just hokum.
The example he gave, tend, intend are from the Anglo- French/Latin words tendre, intendre, which mean to stretch, it doesn't make sense to think it as to end( if we try to date it back to Latin, it is ante, means before).
What's more, the word tedious is from the taedium in Latin. These two set of words clearly coming from different roots, the fact that their pronunciations are
"similar"( O really?! Why didn't I see that, or does he think it is perfectly fine to say ted when he is trying to say tend; say inted when he is trying to say intend?!!) today and the meanings are somewhat transferable when you try to explain it in Chinese( English explanations just go with boring) does't make them the same root or related roots...
I don't know whether he checked the dictionary for etymology before he developed his theory. If he did, I am very much impressed by his logic and reasoning skills. If he didn't , I have to say he is morally not well prepared to be a teacher of any kind.
Also, in French, where English imported these words from en is a pronunciation unit. Thus, it is very unlikely that people would gradually "abandon" the sound of n.
It might be fun to remember words in this way, but I don't think it makes much sense, and the basic logic and method is not much better than what he called remembering the phone numbers in that video.
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Checked his introduction page on Baidu, expert in English etymology... I only have one word for this: WOOOOWWWWWW!!!
[ 此帖被岚君。在2012-03-03 23:08重新编辑 ]
