I could use some general advice. I'm trying to bootstrap myself, advance from
beginning shell collector to advanced beginner or even intermediate.  I'm
okay at a casual level.  I've read a mess of field guides  If I find
something on a Caribbean beach, more often than not, I can identify it,
albeit with the common name.  It's those scientific names that stump me.
I've tried to memorize them, but they just don't stick.

It was bafflingly me.  Years ago, when I gardened, I didn't have trouble
remembering the formal names of the plants in my perennial border.  I think
that's because I talked to other gardeners.  Hearing people pronounce the
names made them stick in my mind.

A short while ago, as part of my self-improvement campaign, I ordered a book
from a shell dealer.

"I'd like," I said. "Recent Zee-noh-for-uh."

"Oh, you mean Recent Zi-ni-fura."

Oooooh. That's how you pronounce xenophora?  The dealer was very polite.  She
didn't make me feel bad it all.  But the exchange strengthened my resolve to
learn.

I've been reading these Conch-L messages on and off for couple of years.  I
know the topic of pronunciation has come up before, but when it did, I was
still just absorbing general information and getting oriented.  Now I'm ready
to hunker down.

Different people take in information in different ways.  I've gotten a fair
amount from reading.  But there's the isolation factor,  I don't know anyone
locally who is interested in shells. (Generally speaking, if people in
Connecticut are interested in the water at all it's as a place to sail their
yachts. Marine life is simply a reason to buy anti-fouling paint.)

I absorb some things more effectively when I hear them spoken. I don't
suppose anyone has made an audiotape or videotape about shells or mollusks?

It's clear to me that hanging with people who talk about shells would do me a
world of good.  If I can get out of work on time tomorrow, I'm going to drive
up to the Mystic Shell Club meeting and see if some of their smarts will rub
off on me.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?