As for me, the strangest word in English for that matter is queue. WHY IS IT PRONOUNCED LIKE "Q"?) If it's just "Q", why do we write another 4 vowels? It's ridiculous I think)

Read this funny poem out loud:  http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/english1.html

I've found that -ough exists as 7 distinct sound!  Try reading though, through, cough, rough, plough, ought, borough.  Crazy stuff even for a native speaker...

Also, I have a feeling that the Anglosphere comprises the only set of nations to have spelling competitions/spelling bees.  I've not come across another language with such a random relationship between how a word is pronounced and is spelling! 

The piece of advice I normally give to learners on this issue: when learning a new word, take it as a whole.  Listen to how the particular word is pronounced and don't bother breaking it down phonetically.  Sure there are clues in the word but I think that there is little point in learning the "rules" of phonetics given the plethora of exceptions.  It's a bit like memorising Chinese characters.

But does anyone know why "colonel" is [ker-nal]. I'm a French speaker, and this word also exist in French, but we pronounce it [ko lo nel] as it should! As it's a high rank position, I can't imagine people starting to deform it over time. It would be a sign a disrespect, surely?

I have heard many British people, (and would do myself) pronounce clerk as "clark" e.g. a bank clerk. I always thought the other way was the American pronounciation.