to hate people who put on an accent when they say a foreign word?

[JustAHolyFool]

It really grinds my gears. I was talking to someone the other night and he started talking about the "bella figura" thing in Italy, but every time he said "bella figura" he said it in an Italian accent.

Dreadful.

I speak German but if I say, I don't know, Doppelganger or Reichstag or something, I don't put on a German accent to say it.

My best friend also does this, trilling her r's like a good one if she mentions anything Spanish.

Why is it so annoying? Is it annoying? Is it just me?

Oh here is another that sprinkles should know but perhaps most Brits wouldn't

If I wanted Oaxaca on my quesadilla, how would you pronounce that? Is there really a British way to even try and say the first word?

I speak German, lived in Germany for 14 years.

How on earth do you pronounce Reichstag without sounding German? If you pronounce properly then it would sound German.

The same goes for Doppelgänger for me, if you pronounce it as is correctly written then it would sound German, but you wrote Doppelganger so if you pronounce it like that (ie. a not ä) then I would agree I suppose.

Although the point of this post is a bit beyond me.

Sometimes here in Germany people use English words in German and seem to have germanised the pronunciation, I still always pronounce it the correct English way as it is correct - they think I am strange but I know I am right!

Yanbu OP. it' the opposite that annoys me...I speak English and Cantonese.

Surely if you are saying a foreign word, you should attempt to say it in the foreign accent ...that would be the correct pronunciation.

So on Chinese New Year ...it's Gong Hay Fat (silent t here please) Choi please.....

And with the or correct tone please.....otherwise I take no responsibility if you inadvertently end up swearing or insulting someone.....

That should have been yabu not yanbu....why does the iPad do that....

Ah, but surely an exaggerated "cartoon-Chinese" accent while saying the phrase crosses it over from correct to pretentious!

No. It can never sound pretentious ...just right or wrong...simple as that

This thread keeps bringing to mind Hermione Grainger's advice: "it's Wing- gar -dium Levi- o -sa"

Its all about context: I speak a little bit of another language because its DH's first language. When I pronounce words from that language I do so in the native accent because that's what I've heard (and by the way no-one there would understand you if you Anglicized them.) And it would just be silly to deliberatlely mis-pronounce.

If you are fluent and comfortable in a language its fine.

What does irritate me is people "overpronouncing" a foreign word in what they think is the correct accent when its not necessary. BBC news presenters do this a lot with words from places like Afghanistan etc: they kind of ham up the pronounciation of place names etc. And I suspect a lot of the time the pronounciation is wrong.

Accents are all mixed up these days anyway...fake London, Essex, American , Birmingham...

You even get English spoken with Chinese grammar here in Malaysia....but that's another thread....it's all mixed up...

I speak German. I'd always say Munich, rather than München, and Berlin rather than "Berleen" when speaking English, because these are the accepted anglicised versions of the names. If I was talking about the band Kraftwerk, it would be said as the Germans pronouce it - with an r sounded in the back of my throat and a "verk" for the last syllable, as that's how I've always known the group. Not trying to impress anyone, just speaking how I see fit.

Everytime I hear someone say chorit zoh instead of choreetho....I want to tread on their toes...

Bejeena
I have been told that I was pronouncing London incorrectly, and had people not understand me. Then they do the exaggerated, 'Oh, you mean Looondon'

Or 'You mean Edinburg'

Place names are tricky though - I agree with Munich rather than Muenchen but found it difficult to Hanover rather than Hannover when we lived there, because I was saying it all the time.

You're kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I would say - if there is an accepted English alternative (particularly place names) then use that, otherwise if it is something I happen to know the correct pronounciation of (e.g. French words, or Afrikaans e.g. rooibos) then i'll use that. If I'm not sure then i'll use the English-y version

I whooped and wept at the first few pages of this thread last night, so thank you Just.
At the school where I work, my personal pet hate is when a couple of members of staff (thankfully not teaching staff) consistently mispronounce ( anglicise ) the names of children with non-English names, instead of taking their cues from how the child and his or her parents pronounce the name and emulating their pronounciation. Or worse still, unilaterally decide to shorten it to a neat mono-syllabic "nickname" in order to overcome the inconvenience. I wouldn't snigger at a colleague who decided to pronounce AH-med with a nice throaty AH, like Ahmed's parents, instead of plumping for Arm-ed.
As a non-native English speaker I have worked hard at my pronounciation, eager not to be defined by my accent. These days I might tell someone I come from Sweden, and get the reply "Ah, I know Swindon." I respect people who respect language and culture enough to have a go at using original pronounciation, and I don't think they appear foolish or affected.

Though I agree that the BBC is NOTORIOUS for trying to overpronounce foreign words/names and getting it very very wrong. For e.g. Morgan Tsvangirai. The first bit of his surname is pronounced "ts-van" not "chan" like the BBC decided it was

"Eye-rack" killed me in the run-up to the Iraq war. TV people eventually learned to pronounce the country's name, fortunately.

As a rule of thumb, you should never invade a country you know so little about that you can't pronounce its name.

Kruh-sahnt anyone?

"As a rule of thumb, you should never invade a country you know so little about that you can't pronounce its name."

Hehe. I think all world leaders should have that up on their wall, just as a reminder. It could have stopped a lot of wars George Bush

Sonia* please tell me how to pronounce properly 'Kant' and 'can't' without sounding rude

Self afaik Oaxaca is a place, like Leicester

I feel like such a dick saying chorizo I've taken to calling it a Spanish sausage. In know how to say it but I just can't can't do it

I was watching an American tv prog where the character was called Sin Jin. I later Googled the cast list and the character was down as St John. How the feck do you get from that to Sin Jin?

just to point out two things....the croissant is actually named after the muslim crescent....and we are the only country that insists on calling IKEA EYEkeya. The rest of the world calls it EekeYA.

just to point out two things....the croissant is actually named after the muslim crescent....and we are the only country that insists on calling IKEA EYEkeya. The rest of the world calls it EekeYA.