The most important feature that sets a language unique from others is its "sound system." A century ago, phonetics made its debut in the teaching of foreign languages. It provides a way to learn proper pronunciation by raising awareness of important linguistic features. Motivation and long-term objectives will determine how helpful it will be. English, in contrast to the majority of European languages, is not a phonetic language because words can contain structural vowel letters and be sounded in a variety of ways.