Am I unreasonable to be annoyed at people who correct me (but incorrectly)?
By Boingboing
@boiboing (13153)
Northampton, England
December 12, 2015 6:50am CST
At the airport this morning we were waiting for our gate to be announced and got talking to a lady at the next table in the coffee bar. She was going to Geneva for a pre-Christmas ski trip with her family. She asked where we were going and I told her - Essaouira. (It's in Morocco - just in case you've not heard of it)
Fair enough, not a lot of people can pronounce it (including, it seems, our pilot) but it's Ess-uh-weeer-ah.
She corrected me. "Ah, you're going to Ess-ooo-ree" she said.
I bit my tongue and wondered at her utterly misplaced confidence.
Now I'm the kind of person who's polite enough to adapt to the mispronunciation of others in an attempt to not make them feel bad. I'm so used to the mispronunciation of my surname that I do it myself in certain countries. If someone gets the name of a place (or a person) totally wrong, I'll just go along with it or try to avoid saying it the way I think it should be said to save them any embarrassment.
Her next question was entirely predictable.
"Do you really think it's 'safe'?" she asked.
I told her that she was a lot more likely to break her leg than I was and left it at that.
28 people like this
27 responses
@msiduri (5687)
• United States
12 Dec 15
This story reminds me of a friend of mind who recently chided her boyfriend in a restaurant for not being able to pronounce her birthplace of Bratislava correctly, or with the correct accent or something. She then went on to order "salmoon" and tell us she's cutting back on sugar because her doctor told her she's "pre-deeabetic." She speaks several languages and English is not her first, or indeed her second, so I would never correct her pronunciation, but she could cut her boyfriend some slack.
5 people like this
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
12 Dec 15
@msiduri If it's wrong, I'm not aware of any mistakes. And if someone told me once how it SHOULD be, I'd change if I was wrong. I make a lot of effort to try to get people's names right. I have a colleague called Constantijn and he says he doesn't care how I pronounce it, but I do and I want it to be right. (It's tine to rhyme with mine not teen to rhyme with mean).
2 people like this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104632)
• United States
12 Dec 15
I suppose she was trying to be polite enough and make conversation. I just don't understand where she might have gotten the pronounciation from and why she thought you wouldn't know how to pronounce it. After all you are the one travelling to it.
(No you aren't unreasonable, atleast I don't think so)
2 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50525)
• Centralia, Missouri
12 Dec 15
that reminds me of the great Chai Tea war. Is it Kuh'i, it is Chee, or is it Chuh-i. lol, people are all convinced they are right.
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50525)
• Centralia, Missouri
12 Dec 15
@msiduri I go order it and say, chee. then get told no, its Ch-aye. Next place it I get told is Kuh-aye. lol.
1 person likes this
@msiduri (5687)
• United States
12 Dec 15
@Jessicalynnt Well, now, they really ought to make up their minds, don't you think? 
Or maybe their all right. It might be word that several language share but pronounce differently.
Or maybe their all right. It might be word that several language share but pronounce differently.
@troyburns (1405)
• New Zealand
12 Dec 15
I don't think you're unreasonable at all - which is why it's a good idea to keep your trap shut in situations like this. If you argue the point or even show your annoyance, you can be pretty sure that folks like this lady will be annoyed that you actually think you are right.
1 person likes this
@rocky1980 (530)
• Chandigarh, India
12 Dec 15
I tend to get angry if someone tries to correct my pronunciation. More than to other person I get mad if I find that I have pronounced the word wrongly. There many words which I find difficult to read and pronounce. Such as this you mentioned in your post. this word appeared twice in the discussion and skipped it on both the occasions.
1 person likes this
@garymarsh6 (23393)
• United Kingdom
12 Dec 15
Touche! One up for you! I love it and would never correct them so they can continue to make themselves look an ar*e!
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38652)
• Midland, Michigan
13 Dec 15
I get annoyed at work at customers that act like they know what they're doing at a self-scanner because they've been working them for a long time and won't listen to a better way. Then things mess up and they blame the machine. I'm sure we are all annoying to some people for various reasons.
It would have been better had she asked you 'isn't it pronounced this way'? or something rather than simply correcting you.
@MarshaMusselman (38652)
• Midland, Michigan
14 Dec 15
@boiboing Come visit me in Michigan, I'll take time to explain the whole thing to you, lol. THe one thing that irks me the most is when the computer will say items backed up and people ignore the message and still try to scan their items not realizing it won't work until they move the items down a bit.
Then instead of moving them, they proceed to bag the items at the end and leave the rest on the belt. A year ago, when people did that the computer would freeze and they'd have to start their whole order over again. It's not done it since that I know of, but I'd prefer people would just do what it's saying so that it does't happen again. They could do both, move them off the belt and then bag for a while before resuming their orders.
@MarshaMusselman (38652)
• Midland, Michigan
14 Dec 15
@boiboing Maybe I'll consider writing a post about using self-scan checkouts for those willing to learn about them. I'd think most things were universal, but I don't use them too often elsewhere other than Krogers sometimes and Wallmart once a year.
@paigea (35678)
• Canada
12 Dec 15
Good comeback about the broken leg. I have trouble pronouncing lots of things, doesn't mean I think my way is right though. If a word is pronounced differently due to different accents; then whose way is right? I need subtitles to watch some shows from Scotland the accent is so unusual to me.
1 person likes this
@crystalvisions (440)
• United Kingdom
12 Dec 15
Haha. I can just imagine her expression!
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29823)
• Momence, Illinois
12 Dec 15
Very funny about her leg. I have a very hard to pronounce correctly last name. I'm used to it. But yes I'm not a child you don't have to correct my speech, thanks.
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22408)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
12 Dec 15
Even my six-year old makes a better attempt to pronounce that placename from your spelling of it. Remember where you might have seen the word Jamahirya in the past, an awkward one to pronounce as the stress falls on the 'y' in the correct Arabic pronunciation, something like jem-ah-herr-ee-yah. Still, the lady's now in Switzerland, where every city has three different pronunciations, depending on which of the three languages common to the country is being used at the time! 
@MALUSE (69413)
• Germany
13 Dec 15
That's a topic I have to say a lot about. The Italian pronunciation is really easy, there are only a handful of rules to consider. And there are no exceptions! Yet, many Germans don't know them. I usually don't correct a wrong pronunciation but use the correct one many times in my response. I don't know which defect these people suffer from but they *don't hear* a difference. Never. It hasn't happened once that someone said, "Oh, it's pronounced like this?" or "Why are you pronouning it like this?". --- If I had pupils with non-German names in my classes, I always asked them how their names were pronounced before doing it wrong and maybe ridiculing them. The younger the pupils are, the less they mind. They want to fit in, not to stand out.
Enjoy your hols and the exotic food you like!
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
13 Dec 15
We got a new colleague at work who comes from India. Her name is Shiti. As you can imagine I interrogated her about exactly how to say it - and unfortunately the answer was exactly as I feared it would be.
@blitzfrick (2890)
• United States
13 Dec 15
I think you did the right thing. I love your response to her about whether it was going to be safe for you.
@blitzfrick (2890)
• United States
14 Dec 15
@boiboing Yes of course. I'm thinking you had the probabilities right though.
@Mike197602 (15487)
• United Kingdom
12 Dec 15
depending upon my mood i may have told her to f*ck off...ive done it before
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
12 Dec 15
I'm guessing that your application to join the diplomatic corps may have been unsuccessful.
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
17 Dec 15
@boiboing I think you done good. I hope you coworker has a good last name to go with her first. It could be shiddy going through life with the name Shiti.
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
17 Dec 15
@boiboing well I'm glad that no one is teasing her. You are adults after all. Still I'm sure people think about it and she probably knows that you are thinking about it. Some stuff is better left unsaid. Some drinks could loosen some tongues though.
