I Now Pronounce You...

In one of my classes today, the professor asked students to read aloud from the text we were examining.

Harmless, right?

Personally, I thought it was quite refreshing. Just the thought of it brought back the chalk-dust and lunch-box nostalgia of elementary school.

Come to find out, there’s a reason you don’t read aloud after elementary school. Exhibit A: mispronounced words.

I know how embarassing it is to find that you've been mispronouncing a word time and again: I'm the repeat offender. Believe me, there’s nothing worse than confidently proclaiming that the ‘sherbert’ was fantastic, when it really was the sherbet that was fantastic. Open mouth, insert foot.

So, what do you say when someone “aks” you to pass them that paper? Or when someone says ‘ek-set-er-a’ when they mean ‘et-set-er-a’? Do you just let them keep on talking and making the same mistake, or do you politely correct them and risk the possibility that they might think you’re a pompous little twit?

Personally, I’d rather have some pompous little twit tell me that my pronunciation is off so I don’t continue to embarrass myself whenever I refer to “Green-witch” village. It’s like mispronunciation immunization: it’s a sharp little hurt when you’re corrected, but now that you know where and what you’ve flubbed, chances are you’ll never make that linguistic gaffe again.

So be a friend and let that person know that it is aficionado, not afandacio, and swallow hard when someone quietly tells you that it is ‘pot-n-tate’ not ‘po-TEN-tate,’ it just saves everyone the embarrassment, no matter how you pronounce it.



P.S. Want a reality check? It’s quite the shocker.