Teachers not knowing how to pronounce place names. Would it put you off?

[Sillysallysausage]

A couple of open days we went to recently I noticed at one the head teacher was talking about a trip the kids had done to Tanzania except he kept saying TanZAYNia and at another they were talking about Homer's Odyssey and kept calling Ithaca iTHARca. Would it put you off the school? I know it sounds petty but surely in your speech to prospective parents you'd make sure you knew what you were talking about?

It is maybe just the way the speak, you are being petty and a bit weird about it.

I mean i am not a teacher but I would say Tansaynia !

I'd speak to the governors and write to my local MP

Maybe a bit petty. It absolutely wasn't an accent thing though. There's no way. Tanzania was pronounced so it almost rhymed with Romania for example 😂

It's probably their accents or how they talk, I most likely wouldn't even notice. Either way I honestly couldn't think of anything less important in regards to making the choice for a secondary school than how a few staff members pronounced some very unimportant words.

So like Tasmania then?

But it's Tan za NIA.

Well yes I know how it should be said.

Yes sort of. And "ITHAAARCA' 😂

The English always put an 'r' in where it doesn't go. And what is the modern pronunciation of Tanzania?

I can see where you are coming from, I would never write something into a speech unless I was certain I knew how to pronounce it and when teaching something new I often Google pronunciation to get things right. It wouldn't be my deciding factor about a school though because if the head has a good track record otherwise and the school is doing well then that counts. Some heads are good at their jobs which is running a business but not so good at public speaking. I've also worked for useless headteachers who get by because they can talk and give the appearance of knowing what they are doing.

I'd be more concerned about the level of bullying in the school and how they deal with it.

Exactly!! How could you say that on repeat to a school hall full of parents? I noticed quite a bit of whispering when he did it as well 😂

Hi , just back from a holiday in Tanzania. Everyone who lived there pronounced it TanZAYnia.

TanzaNIA is our Anglo-cised way of pronouncing it but it’s not correct.

Really? Ok then I stand corrected. Anyone been to Ithaca? How do they pronounce it?

Oh feel a bit smug now.

I’d notice and be a bit bothered by it, more so the pronunciation of Tanzania. Even though I definitely thought it was pronounced TanZAYnia until into my twenties - the difference is I didn’t need to speak about it in a public presentation and it wasn’t somewhere I’d sent a group of pupils on a field trip, presumably involving multiple conversations before and afterwards.

Ithaca not so much. If it was the head again making some kind of literary allusion rather than referring to something actually covered in school, I’d find it a bit wanky and pretentious and even more so given that they couldn’t pronounce it accurately. If it was in reference to a topic actually covered in school, and the speaker was the person who taught it, then yes I’d expect them to pronounce it correctly.

I can’t say it would ‘put me off’ in that it wouldn’t be the deciding factor when choosing a school. I would notice though, and feel somewhat bothered by it even whilst I told myself not to be ridiculous!

You only know the correct pronunciation if you’ve heard someone say it. Tanzania doesn’t come up that often so perhaps that’s the reason. Cut them some slack.

But why did you say you'd pronounce it incorrectly then? Confused...

He’s saying it the Ancient Greek way, with the “ah” sound in the middle, not “ar”. That’s fine. They’ll have gone there because of Ancient Greek history and mythology.

It was the English teacher reading to a class from the Odyssey so I would have assumed she'd know the word.

Nope not really. It was all sort of stretched out like ITHAAARCA'. Is that correct? So the accent was an the aaaar bit if you see what I mean.

It's more TanZANNia but some do say TanzanEEa. Especially when not speaking English.

One has to be careful about these things. It's possible that the teachers are correct. Sometimes pronunciations change, sometimes the actual name of the place changes. It's hard to keep up!