sounding it out

I mentioned the Korean word Romanized as maknae in this post
https://lauradi7dw.dreamwidth.org/795470.html
Since this is always included when giving bios of members of kpop groups, I had seen it (in our alphabet) and heard it (said by English speakers on youtube) many times. I have always pronounced it mahk-neh, the way every other clueless person says it. But then it showed up in a Duolingo lesson, with someone saying something about the 막내 of the family. I couldn't understand it by listening. When I sounded out the letters individually, I still came up with the same way I've been saying it, but there are lots of rules in Korean about consonants being dropped or changed or subsumed when they are adjacent, and this turns out to be one of them. I just never made the connection. So the k is basically not there when speaking or listening. There are other languages that have a k(g) + n change, including English, if you think about knight. Now of course I'm pronouncing it
k-niggit in my head.

grateful for my friends

For reasons, I have been having a tough time emotionally for the past few days. I have dutifully written some of it down to bring up in my therapy appointment tomorrow. sorcyress and some other ringers stayed out in the cold for a long time yesterday listening to me talk and sniffle, adding useful information as well as general love and support. I am so lucky to have friends (those and others).