Economical Brain

A few days ago, my father and brother were discussing the relevance of London as a financial center, and the many ways to pronounce languages. I was mentioning how my friends complain about French, and used the sound "oh" as an example. In my mind there were 4 ways to spell the "oh" sound in French (eau, au, o, ot). In true one-up-manship, my father said "well there are actually 13 ways to pronounce the sound 'oh' in French."

A little deflated, I turned away from the conversation feeling much less knowledgeable than both of them.

Until I started reading the new issue of the Economist. Which happened to have: 1) an article on the relevance of London as a financial capital, and 2) an article on difficult languages to learn and pronounce (with the anecdote about the French "oh").

Bwwwaha, I'm on to you now! And I must remember to read the Economist before family dinners.