は versus わ, writing vs. reading?

[bloritsch]

Am I missing something when I look at the lesson sheets? When I listen to the lesson, the basic introductions are always something like:

私わバロンです。

でも, when I look at the PDF the same sentence is written like this:

私はバロンです。

Am I hearing the particle wrong, or is this a peculiarity of this particle? I know that Mexicans like to pronounce their country name メヒコ when the rest of the Spanish and English speaking world calls it メクシコ. Is this a similar type of thing?

I'm trying to learn to read Japanese, and not just speak it--and this is just one of those things that is a little confusing. I want to make sure I associate the right sounds with the kana.

So is the particle pronounced WA and written HA, or am I confusing particles?

[Sean]

Yeah, it's supposed to be written は, but is pronounced わ. Like with へbeing spoken え or を being spoken お, it's just a quirk with those particles.