Pronunciation of World Products

It's nothing to do with correcting or elitism, although the French are very sensitive about it and impressed with mine; which is a miracle as my first teacher spoke with a Hungarian accent and I was in an Anglican Private School. If you enjoy something odds are someday you will meet someone from that country and a halfway decent pronunciation conveys
that enthusiasm. Sharing food and a few words of language can open lots of doors; maybe even keep you from getting killed ( me to a Oxnard Satanas gang member in a men's room ' an no a ma gustimo? potanganamo ' followed by flicking a then legal balisong open before he could recover from shock. He smiled and walked out a little unsteady on his feet.)

Well, if I ever find myself in a situation where silencing the "n" in the word "Plisson" is the difference between life and death, I will pray to the heathen gods below that they spare my life out of pity for a lowly soul with a lack of education and worldly travel...

A mans got to know his limitations

My sweetwife is a Hoosier by birth. There they warsh many things to make them clean. Me, I grew up in Kansas where speech is pure.

It's interesting that I can see both KAV's and BadDad's points of view on this.  I think a combination of common sense and courtesy is called for.  One might innocently mispronounce a foreign word and someone pointing it out and saying the term properly, without being snarky or cruel, I would see as an educational opportunity.

When I was teaching elementary school, I had many students from Viet Nam.  They had escaped from the war, were in a completely foreign culture and country.  I got the idea to ask them to teach me how to count in Vietnamese.  They were delighted and giggled every time I made a mistake.  Eventually, I could count up to 100.  Sadly, I only remember 1, 2, and 3 in their language but the learning experience for both my students and me was priceless and one I  still haven't forgotten some forty years later.

Sometimes, whether it is innocent 10 year olds or knowledgeable adults, it really is all about the presentation.

I wouldn't want to belittle someone for a mispronunciation, but I do care about trying to pronounce something correctly myself.

It seems respectful to try, even if I can't get it quite right. I'm interested in learning about other countries and cultures, so it's also a matter of curiosity.


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It's interesting that I can see both KAV's and BadDad's points of view on this.  I think a combination of common sense and courtesy is called for.  One might innocently mispronounce a foreign word and someone pointing it out and saying the term properly, without being snarky or cruel, I would see as an educational opportunity.

When I was teaching elementary school, I had many students from Viet Nam.  They had escaped from the war, were in a completely foreign culture and country.  I got the idea to ask them to teach me how to count in Vietnamese.  They were delighted and giggled every time I made a mistake.  Eventually, I could count up to 100.  Sadly, I only remember 1, 2, and 3 in their language but the learning experience for both my students and me was priceless and one I  still haven't forgotten some forty years later.

Sometimes, whether it is innocent 10 year olds or knowledgeable adults, it really is all about the presentation.

I work with a lot of Mexican guys, with varying degrees of English ability from native-born-fluent to not-a-word, and we always joke around and get a kick out of trying to learn from each other what different words and phrases mean, and how to say different things. Not all of it polite language, but always entertaining.

I've never traveled beyond Canada and Mexico. I would hope that anyone I encountered in a global journey would treat me with the same respect and kindness I would(and do) show them if(when) they were in my country.

I've worked with a lot of American guys with varying degrees of English fluency and critical thinking. I reposted this information from a five year old post on TSN I started then. The contributions were literally worldwide and not one poster felt it an affront. I apologize in failing to recognize today's shaving tribes embrace of studied mediocrity , xenophobia and parochial comfort zones and will refrain from posting beyond lists of top five blades, why MWF is overrated, rumours of product discontinuance and shave of the day.

I've worked with a lot of American guys with varying degrees of English fluency and critical thinking. I reposted this information from a  five year old post on TSN I started then. The contributions were literally worldwide and not one poster felt it an affront. I apologize in failing to recognize today's shaving tribes embrace of studied mediocrity , xenophobia and parochial comfort zones and will refrain from posting beyond lists  of top five blades, why MWF is overrated, rumours of product discontinuance and  shave of the day.

If you do that, KAV, then the very thing you are trying to accomplish is lost.  Take a look at some of the responses and you will see that, while they are mixed, curiosity is still out there among our members.  Just because some of us may not care for change (many times, guilty as charged ) doesn't mean that there isn't curiosity and the desire to learn.

I've worked with a lot of American guys with varying degrees of English fluency and critical thinking. I reposted this information from a  five year old post on TSN I started then. The contributions were literally worldwide and not one poster felt it an affront. I apologize in failing to recognize today's shaving tribes embrace of studied mediocrity , xenophobia and parochial comfort zones and will refrain from posting beyond lists  of top five blades, why MWF is overrated, rumours of product discontinuance and  shave of the day.

If you do that, KAV, then the very thing you are trying to accomplish is lost.  Take a look at some of the responses and you will see that, while they are mixed, curiosity is still out there among our members.  Just because some of us may not care for change (many times, guilty as charged ) doesn't mean that there isn't curiosity and the desire to learn.

It's not a matter of not wanting to learn or change so much as not wanting to be made to feel inferior by comparison.

Being corrected sucks. Even more so when done with a sense of arrogance. Being made to feel as though a mispronunciation of a completely foreign word you've only ever heard in your head is a condemnable offense is very disheartening and makes a man not want to interact...at least not in person...


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