Bye-bye to English Illiteracy in 3 months

About the Book

Dear boys and girls, parents and teachers, ladies and gentlemen:

In spite of Professor Mina’s past achievements, today he feels some uneasiness.  He strongly regrets going to grade school without anyone teaching him to learn by heart the “two string of symbols of the Mina’s phonetic alphabet.”  And equally bad, without anybody being “accountable enough” to explain to him the inseparable recommendations that “must go with the alphabet.”  Here they are:

1^st Recommendation:     To buy this book.

2^nd Recommendation:    To make a continuous effort to realize and to explain to yourself, and later on to your child or pupil, that this book has nothing to do with math.  It is not a math book!

The numbers are used only to name the vowel sounds because they are known to everybody.  They are easy to write and easy to remember.

No additions, no subtractions, no operations of any kind would be done with those numbers.

3^rd Recommendation:     Memorize the following string of vowel symbols, preferably from “top to bottom”:

(Y1) – (46) – (55) – (75) – (78) – (82) – (86)

(88) – (98) – (9R) – (1) – (2 – (3) – (4)

(5) – (6) – (7) – (8) – (9) – (y) – (w).

It helps to remember that thumbs, toes, and fingers in hands and feet match the vowel symbols if semivowels (y), (w) are taken as one vowel.

Now, memorize the following pairs of consonants, preferably from let to right.

D/T – B/P – V/F – G/K – WH/H – J/CH

L/R – M/N – Z/S – ZH/SH – Y/W – (TH)/THE

It also helps to remember that the pairs of consonant sounds match the pairs of ribs in humans.

The 3^rd recommendation like the 2^nd may require a change of attitude in some adults that may not consider memorization a process worth doing.  If this is your thought, think again and remember computers:  the more memory, the more power.

4^th Recommendation:     After completing the 3^rd recommendation, and “not before,” teach it to your child or pupil.  They learn very fast.

5^th Recommendation:     Now that you and your child or pupil have been properly conditioned,  do the following:

a.      Start reading the introduction.

b.      Continue with the first lesson that combines the first pair of consonants (D/T) with the strings of vowel symbols.

c.      Do not spend more than one week per lesson.

d.      During or at the end of each lesson, do transcription exercises, writing words and corresponding pronunciation across an equal sign.

e.      Continue with the next lesson until all 12 are completed.

f.      The cumulative effect of transcription and memorization will soon become second nature, which allows you to do it without writing—just from the top of your head.

g.      Only you will know when that happens—people describe it in different ways:

Others may say:     “I feel I have arrived.”

Others may say:     “I feel phonetically illuminated.” Or “I am a 21^st century literate.”

h.      Whichever you feel, send an email to:  adrianomina@yahoo.com

About the Author

A registered professional engineer in the State of Michigan; a graduate in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas—a Jayhawker—and La Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia; with postgraduate work in Sanitary Engineering at Wayne State University, Detroit Michigan; and a degree in Applied Electronic Engineering Technology from NIT (National Institute of Technology) in Livonia, Michigan.  A Fulbright in 1964; an Alpha Rho Member of Phi Lambda Upsilon, Honorary Chemical Society; and later on, a member of Engineering Society of Detroit.

Professor Mina has worked in several capacities in both the applied and academic world.  As a Senior Water Systems Chemist in one of the largest fresh water treatment plant in Detroit; As Associate Chemical Engineer in Industrial Waste Control where he pioneered the development of the database for the industrial inventory of the Greater Detroit Metropolitan area.

He was Instructor of Applied Electronic Engineering Technology and Assistant Professor of Thermodynamics for Chemical Engineering.

He was born in Caloto, Cauca, on the Southwestern region of Colombia.  In 1968, he, his wife, Francia Nubia, and their three children, Liliana, Adriana, and Mauricio, moved to Detroit, Michigan, where they lived for many years.  Today, he and his wife live in Boca Raton, Florida.

“Bye-bye to English illiteracy in three months,” using memorization and daily use of the Mina’s phonetic alphabet is the latest avocational contribution of Professor Mina, during the many years he has studied the Phonetics of The American English.  It may well become the education breakthrough of the 21^st century.