NintenDogs: the tragedy of "Rex"
Almost everybody, as a kid, had that one letter that they couldn't pronounce correctly no matter how hard they tried. For me, it was the letter "X". I hated that I couldn't pronounce it, but, at the same time, it didn't really bother me much because the only word I knew that included an "X" was "xilofono" (xylophone). "X" is not a letter used much at all in Italian, in fact, when we are young in Italy we don't even study the "English" letters (J,K,W,X,Y), as there are very few Italian words that include them.
So, I thought I was fine. But then one of the most horrible days of my childhood came to teach me a lesson. Me and my brother used to share a Nintendo DS, and with that, we shared all the games as well. My favorite game of them all was NintenDogs, the game where you could have virtual dogs and make them eat, play, and train. I had my two beautiful English Cocker Spaniels called "Sole" (Sun) and "Luna" (Moon), and as a kid, I loved them to death. My brother, on the other hand, had a husky who was basically the money maker of the game. He was the most trained and would do competitions that gave us money to support all three dogs. But because my brother apparently did not want me to play with his dog, he played smart and ended up calling him "Rex".
Now, anyone who has ever used NintenDogs knows that if you want to play with a dog (train or pet him), you need to call him by name through the microphone. I cannot tell you how many times I tried to play with Rex and he wouldn't respond because I couldn't say the letter "X" and i would call him "Rets" instead.
But why couldn't I pronounce the letter "X", no matter how hard I tried?
On Quora, they try to answer this question by saying that:
So, I thought I was fine. But then one of the most horrible days of my childhood came to teach me a lesson. Me and my brother used to share a Nintendo DS, and with that, we shared all the games as well. My favorite game of them all was NintenDogs, the game where you could have virtual dogs and make them eat, play, and train. I had my two beautiful English Cocker Spaniels called "Sole" (Sun) and "Luna" (Moon), and as a kid, I loved them to death. My brother, on the other hand, had a husky who was basically the money maker of the game. He was the most trained and would do competitions that gave us money to support all three dogs. But because my brother apparently did not want me to play with his dog, he played smart and ended up calling him "Rex".
Now, anyone who has ever used NintenDogs knows that if you want to play with a dog (train or pet him), you need to call him by name through the microphone. I cannot tell you how many times I tried to play with Rex and he wouldn't respond because I couldn't say the letter "X" and i would call him "Rets" instead.
But why couldn't I pronounce the letter "X", no matter how hard I tried?
On Quora, they try to answer this question by saying that:
When you say “sits” for “six,” you are substituting /ts/ for /ks/. The /t/ and /s/ sounds are both produced near the front of the mouth, just behind the front teeth, and the /k/ is produced in the back of the mouth. It is easier to say /ts/ than /ks/.It took me a long time and a lot of hard work to learn how to say the letter "X", but, at the end, when I could finally call "Rex" and the dog would come to me, all the work was worth it.
I like your story. It was very entertaining and I could relate because I also had a Nintendo dogs game. My dog's name was princess. I'm glad you finally could say the letter X at the end!
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