sound-alphabet
so i posted this somewhere... this is an "alphabet" intended for teaching deaf people how to make sounds. the direction the shape is pointed in shows you where the tongue is pointed towards in the mouth; this line shows how much the throat is closed up (for airflow), that line shows if it's simply air or if the vocal chords are being used, etc
so then after you have the basics down, when you see a new symbol you can say that new sound straight away because it's just like putting a puzzle together
the point is that IPA is just random symbols that don't make any sense (to the average person) and if you see a new symbol you have to go get a long description of how that sound is made and you usually still can't figure it out. in IPA you also have to, y'know, battle against your own preconcieved notions of where "T" is said in the mouth.
i think this sound-alphabet thing is really great. but, then someone commented like "why don't you just use IPA, it's easy..." it's not freaking easy!! in IPA, theres nothing at all whatsoever (at least on first glance?) telling you that ʌ is an "uh" sound.. etc...
this other system even shows you right away if it's a consonant or vowel. sigh.