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?

My DGD goes to an Outstanding rated school, the Head Teacher recently gave a speech and repeatedly said, 'we was'. I nearly fell off my chair!

No it wouldn’t bother me. If I was a teacher I’d be worried you’re going to be a petty and high maintenance parent…

My Irish DS learnt how to pronounce Edinburgh from
his Glaswegian cousins and called it Embra for a long time…

Was about to say exactly this.

I lived and taught in Tanzania for several years. In Tanzania it is definitely Tanzaynia so if they'd run a meaningful trip there then they're likely showing their insight from that.

Well my mind is blown by people clarifying the apparently correct pronunciation of Tanzania. My mil was born and brought up in Tanzania and always called it TanzanEEa. She moved to the UK in the 60s though so presumably was brought up with Tanganyika.

Every day is indeed a school day.

I'm ok. FWIW I am not a snob at all 😂

Every day is a school day indeed. So now I think the head has gone in my mind from sounding like a bit of an idiot to a bit of a show off! It's a bit like me saying I'm off to Milano to visit my family when speaking English to English people. I wouldn't. I'd say Milan (but obviously Milano if I was speaking Italian)

Does it bloody matter!!?

I aways thought how simply lovely it would be to watch a zebra eating a scone in a garage in Kenya... but I'd never dare to mention it to anybody else irl.

🙄

Agreed. Better still alert the PM. He needs to call a cobra meeting asap.

I agree. Don’t hang about !

Amused by the suggestion the teacher was employing Ancient Greek pronunciation with Itharrrca. I’ve studied Homer - never heard any lecturer discuss it in English with this pronunciation. Doesn’t sound like he was going for classical pronunciation from the op’s description!

I am very intelligent and articulate but I really struggle with pronouncing foreign words .Cannot understand why ,but I feel very anxious if having to use an unfamiliar word in public ! My family are absolutely fine about it and will order in restaurants because they understand my ridiculous fear ! On reflection over my many years I am probably dyspraxic( which my family have secretly suspected)tick all the boxes but cannot be bothered now to get formally diagnosed.

Coincidentally, my DS came home from school this week and complained that his history teacher had mispronounced the name of Hippocrates (ancient Greek medical expert). Apparently the teacher was pronouncing 'crates' as one syllable, like the English word 'crates', so DS said that he politely tried to help the teacher by pronouncing it loudly as 'Hip-POK-ruh-tees'.

I confess I had a second of huge amazement and pride at my DS knowing how to pronounce Hippocrates. I swear I have no clue why he knows this.

What I said to DS though was that mispronouncing names doesn't mean you're not clever. It means you've read more things in books on your own than you've actually heard people say to you out loud.

As a child I read avidly and created (wrong) pronunciations of many words in my head. As an adult with a postgrad degree, I still sometimes discover that I've been pronouncing a word wrong.

All this to say that a teacher mispronouncing a name wouldn't worry me in the slightest. The question is whether the teacher is getting the kids interested in Tanzania or Ithaca or whatever.

DS loves his history teacher (by all accounts she is very good) and I wanted to make sure that she retains her authority in his eyes.

I've seen the pictured quote pop up now and again on social media; it's basically what I said to DS.

Yes, it would make me wonder what other gaps there were in their general knowledge and education.

If you're paying private school fees for these people to teach your child, I'd be shopping around for an alternative.

It may well mean they learned it by reading, but if a teacher had managed to study for A levels and then a university degree and had still never heard the correct pronunciation, or heard it and failed to make the connection to what they had read, then I wouldn't consider them the sharpest tool in the shed.

We had a whole lecture with the lecturer saying menestration. Still remember it.

Plus our old head always said, myself and...

Eeethàkee

Who was suggesting it was “edinborough” as per your post then?

m.youtube.com/watch?v=t1d3lIcuEMU&pp=ygUadGlwcGluZyBwb2ludCBob21lciBkb251dHM%3D

That's how I was taught to pronounce Tanzania at school. When I've heard it pronounced differently, I've thought, in passing, "oh they're not saying it correctly". And then don't give it another thought.