I honestly feel like the “you’re trying to hard to pronounce the country/city/food name” vibe is silly anyways. If they pronounce it “Bærthélōnã” in Barcelona, then why shouldn’t I try to pronounce it that way? Especially these days in our hyper-connected world, I don’t really have an excuse of “well I never knew they said it that way”.
Comment on Should you copy a person's accent when pronouncing their name?
ilinamorato@lemmy.world 4 weeks agoFor the food thing, as a Midwesterner I feel like I come across as making fun of the other person when I try too hard. Like the people who say “Bærthélōnã” after they get back from two weeks in northwest Spain; it’s not going to fit into my normal speech pattern, it’ll just sound like I’m trying to draw attention to it if I say “bûɽɽɽito.”
But for names? I dunno man, that’s your name. I don’t want you to feel left out if I’m pronouncing “Evelyn” and “Leo” and “Elliott” perfectly, but then I stumble over “Rekha” or “Urooj” or “Joãozinho.” I’ll try to at least get as close as I can to the way I hear you pronounce it.
eronth@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
ilinamorato@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I don’t mean people who earnestly pronounce it the way they do in Barcelona, I mean the people who make a huge deal out of saying it as intensely as possible, trying to call attention to how well-traveled they are by making it sound super alien.
Triasha@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I grew up here, being white doesn’t mean it’s not my culture. I don’t know jack about Mexican cuisine, but Tex Mex is my culture.
ilinamorato@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Yeah, if I was from the Southwest I’m sure it would be different. But as a Midwestern kid, our “culture” is almost entirely used to ferment milk for cheese.