>>I don't either. I hesitate to say, but I guess I should - whatever method was popular around the very early 1950s. Actually I think I was reading (probably at a fairly primitive level) at home before I ever started school. When I really think back, both my parents were avid readers, and I think maybe the method under which I learned was called 'osmosis'. ;)
>
>So you didn't learn by sounding out letters? Wow, I always thought that had always been the standard.

I can't possibly imagine how can you sound out a letter in English. The letter and the sound are so disconnected in this language, that whatever connection between a character and a sound you make, you'll run into an exception few sentences later.

How do you sound an x - as ks or as z? Does g sound like in "go", or like in "gin", or like in "tough", or is it silent like in "poignant", or is it tweaked beyond recognition as in "paradigm"?