I’ve always enjoyed playing around with language. As a teacher it was a way to keep myself amused and hopefully arrest the attention of students. For example, “pass the chalk” (but pronounce chalk the way it’s spelled, not “chock”). Pronounced as spelled, it’s almost unrecognizable.
I’ve always been fascinated with language as well. I am a social worker with an undergrad degree in English.
Pronouncing words as they are spelled would certainly get the attention of students.
I would have enjoyed a class like yours.
I, too, have learned to read and write upside-down, from tutoring students and often sitting on the opposite side of the table from them. I don’t recommend the writing, though: My handwriting is already bad enough, right-side-up. Mostly I only do it for numbers.
Funnily enough, I did recommend that for my super-whiz students who got bored with the Algebra assignments - write the homework upside down (make the finished product normal, but sit at the top and work upside down). One girl got so good at it I had to further suggest that she do it upside down while looking in a mirror. That took care of her for a while.
Heh, reminds me that, well into adulthood, I knew there was a written word, ‘segue’, which meant ‘a transition from one thing to another’. I assumed it was pronounced ‘soog’ or ‘seg-you’.
And I knew there was a word I heard spoken that sounded like, and I assumed was spelled, ‘segway ‘, which also meant transition. Again, I was well into adulthood when I got my mind blown by learning that ‘segue’ was pronounced ‘segway‘ and they were the same word. Didn’t help that the Segway scooter’s name was spelled phonetically.
Interesting.
Never tried the upgrade down reading and writing.
I have practiced writing and printing the alphabet and numbers with my less dominant hand for many years. In case I lost the use of my dominant one I guess.
I knew that one because I was studying music and Italian language at the same time when I was 12. Segue literally means ‘it follows’, as in “sequel.”
As an avid reader when I was a child, I learned much of my vocabulary from books rather than hearing people speak.
On weekends, my parents took me along on their frequent visits to flea markets looking for, as properly pronounced, “an - teeks".” A book I was reading at the time involved what I heard in my mind pronounced as “anti - cues.”
My mind was blown for a second or two when I realized that those antiques I was reading about and the antiques my parents were looking for were the same word!
That happened to me a lot as a kid too. And I expect most of us here. The Dope sorta selects for reading.
Heck, even now there’s a hefty chunk of the backlot of my vocabulary I know, sometimes see, may use, but have never heard spoken. … That I recognized. 
I’m having trouble with this, because I think I pronounce the L in chalk, it’s just very brief, and mostly changes the sound the “a” makes. “Chock” seems weird. Unless you mean converting the ch to a k-ha sound?
Near me there is a Quay Street, which is very land locked. I’m totally familiar with the marina related structure pronounced “key”, similar to a dock, where boats park. Reading “quay” in a book about Nantucket or something, I’m sure I’d get it right.
But out of any nautical context, when talking to people and telling them someplace is on “key” street, or they tell me something is on “key” street, it is confusing. Oh, you mean “kway” street?
Maybe there’s a way to embed audio clips so we can communicate clearly about this! You remind me of another word I loved to mispronounce: caulk. In class I’d say something closer to “calc” than “cock.” It really messed with some students minds - “that’s just wrong!”
Grew up in California, visited Yosemite as a child. Nevertheless, when we moved to a new neighborhood there was a pathway labeled “Yosemite Steps” which I read as “Yose Mite.” Didn’t figure it out until I was 8.
I did have one student who did his homework in Elder Futhark runes. I didn’t discourage him, because his handwriting was so messy that the runes were actually easier to read (most of them are similar to the corresponding Latin-alphabet letters).
I had a moment like that with hors d’oeuvres. I think also with quinoa.
And how many of us spent years playing D&D before we realized that “Tarrasque” is two syllables, not three?
Never an issue for me, because I didn’t encounter those words until after I started French in public school.
When I was a kid I had a ViewMaster with photos of Yosemite Park. I pronounced it as “Yoseh Mite”. I however knew the correct pronunciation of “Yosemite Sam” and it was quite the revelation when I first saw his name in writing and realized that it was the same word.
This is me, but for ‘ennui’.
There’s a new decentralized messaging app called bitchat. Meant to be “bit chat”, but…
“That’s unpossible!”
I was just a tiny sinner when I encountered a factoid about the ancient Greeks (or Romans, I’m not sure). The book I was reading said that one of the punishments for criminals was ostracism, which was a word I hadn’t encountered before.
However, I knew we had blender in the kitchen called the Osterizer.
So I pictured a giant cylinder with whirling blades into which criminals were tossed…
I think it was a few years before I encountred the word in a context that refuted that image.
Of course you had it wrong.
The correct word is ostrich-sized. The criminal was punished by being stretched on a rack until he 9or she) was as tall as an ostrich. This made them stand out, so peop;le knew to not interact with them in any way.