Lemony Snicket AIBU moment

[PastSellByDate]

DD1 came home thrilled that her English class is reading A Bad Beginging - the first of the Series of Unfortunate Events novels by Lemony Snicket.

All good - but...

Teacher is insisting (and I mean insisting) the class pronounce Klaus Baudelaire as Clause Body-lire.

I'm cringing just inwardly hearing that joyous yoddling of the local accent - but I'm not local or English - so maybe I'm being unfair?

Do I say something or let it go. DD1 was threatened with detention for saying Klaus (our pronunctiation is K+Louse - which matches Lemony Snicket's own: www.lemonysnicket.com/vilevideos/index.html)

AIBU?

YADNBU especially about the pronunciation of Baudelaire - there's a REASON why the Baudelaires have that name. To mispronounce it is to lose sight of the reason!

ha ha will ask DD when she is home how she pronounces it. she's read them all but to herself so it could be very amusing.

by the way YADNBU! send the link in.

Oh wow! Thanks so much for linking to the Lemony Snicket website, that's the rest of my afternoon gone for a burton !

YADNBU the teacher is a dunce and you should demand that they are sacked immediately (to be replaced by Count Olaf in disguise, naturally...)

< over-reacts >

Detention for correctly pronouncing 'Klaus'? That's outrageous! Seriously, I would complain about the detention if nothing else - it's such a trival reason (unless your DD was positively sneering at the teacher when she said it).

Rabbit, what is the reason for them being called Baudelaire? It's so long since I read the books...

Hi Muffin:

There may be other twists on the meaning - but I thought it was referring to the french author (free dictionary link here: www.thefreedictionary.com/Baudelaire - famous for Les Fleurs des Mal (thus naming the eldest Baudelaire Violet is a joke on that) & 'macabre imagery'.

Lots of literary references throughout. Sometimes obvious - sometimes hidden. Names of residents of the island in The End (final volume) is a good example. Including Ishmael - Call me Ish (obvious reference to Moby Dick).

Forgot to say thanks for YADNUs - have decided after many biscuits & hot chocolate with DD1 that the best way forward is for DD1 to just gently suggest the teacher might like to look at the official website.

Conversely what my lovely DD1 is currently doing to her MFL would curl hair - but to be fair I think the MFL teacher sees getting pronunciations right as a protracted battle - rather than a brief skirmish.

Pastsellbydate is right. Mr Poe is also a reference to Baudelaire (he was partly famous for his translations of Poe).

Thanks, past - I knew about the French author, but thought there was something more specific (as you have pointed out, there is). Both my DCs loved those books - maybe we should all reread them!

YANBU - but my first reading book at secondary was "I Am David", and the African student teacher at my essex school, insisted that we pronounce Chalet as Chal-let. One word that pretty much everyone could pronounce correctly, after all who hadn't spent a night at their Gran or Aunt's Chalet in Clacton.

YADNBU - disappointing that the teacher won't listen to someone who obviously already knows and loves the books.

I have fond memories of an almost-stand-up row with my English teacher who insisted that there were only 4 Bennet sisters - IIRC he had forgotten poor Kitty (quite apt, really). But to his credit, he went out of the classroom, found a copy of P&P, and checked. Never argue with an Austen lover, even if they are only 15 . . .

Sorry, it was Mary that he forgot

I had the horror of listening to a student teacher reading Harry Potter to a year 7 class. His friend is called Hermy-own, apparently.