Where can I learn xsampa or whatever method you guys use to notate how words sound?
xsampa?
There's a chart of X-SAMPA and IPA here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-SAMPA .
IPA uses special characters, whereas X-SAMPA just uses the standard keyboard.
IPA uses special characters, whereas X-SAMPA just uses the standard keyboard.
Well, a lot of those symbols are for sounds that aren't found in English or the other major European languages. You can have a good working knowledge of X-SAMPA without knowing all the symbols.
If you want to start off by just learning the symbols used for English, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_chart_for_English and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAMPA_chart_for_English .
If you want to start off by just learning the symbols used for English, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_chart_for_English and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAMPA_chart_for_English .
Familiarise yourself with the symbols you would associate with your native language and some of them might crossover to English.
I'm not really that good with X-SAMPA yet, so I just open the Wikipedia chart in another window when I need to write. I can just check any symbol that I can't remember.