Be careful of mispronunciations!
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (381288)
Rockingham, Australia
June 2, 2026 3:09am CST
The photo is of the outdoor area of Chalet Rigi where we spent an enjoyable evening and which I wrote about. It has nothing to do with the text.
I have a hairdresser who comes to the house to give me a trim. She is a very nice lady; quite loud but she chats away and in no time she is out the door again. She told me a funny story last time.
She and her husband came out to Australia from Croatia as a young married couple. Their English wasn’t very good but the husband got a job working with sheet metal. The boss was so impressed with the young man’s work that he suggested he do some study and get his ‘ticket’. This would result in an increase in his wages as well as better job prospects. The young man asked his wife (my hairdresser) to go to the technical college and ask for the paperwork.
She wondered why the receptionist looked askance at her before asking her to repeat her request. The receptionist then told her very nicely that she needed to learn to say ‘sheet metal’, and not ‘sh*t metal’.
19 people like this
18 responses
@Soobinah (367)
•
2 Jun
I have a friend who always mispronounce words, she always do that everywhere we go, she always thought that she is funny, indeed funny most of the time. So we are in a restaurant we're planning to order food while checking on the menu she saw her crush entering the resto so she told me that she will be serious this time, she needs to observe proper etiquette. So i called the waiter to order so i already made my order but and its her turn to order but then she suddenly say "driver and not waiter, so i pretend that i did not hear anything, actually im about to laugh out loud that time, then she said "I'm so sorry waiter, I want to order some Fasta and Fizza. I was trying to hold in my laughter but then we made an eye contact, so we ended up bursting out laughing even everyone there joined laughing.
6 people like this
@LindaOHio (222110)
• United States
2 Jun
How embarrassing. An easy enough mistake.
4 people like this
@GardenGerty (169305)
• United States
21h
Happens to the best of us. When my first husband was in the nursing home another man from our church was there as well. She would bring their pet dog, but she never wanted to say his breed. It was a Shih tzu . I helped her out, by telling her to call him a sheet zoo. That helped her feeling immensely.
2 people like this
@Fishmomma (11655)
• United States
19h
Oh my I would look like a beet. Its hard when you say something and its not what you meant to say.
2 people like this
@JudyEv (381288)
• Rockingham, Australia
10h
She was very embarrassed at the time because she hadn't been in Australia for very long. She laughs about it now.
@wolfgirl569 (135331)
• Marion, Ohio
2 Jun
That would be embarrassing. But an easy mistake
2 people like this
@RasmaSandra (97750)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
22h
I love that; I definitely have to learn to pronounce it. So many times Latvians got into trouble when, as immigrants, they began living in NYC. In Latvian shi---as and tas mean this and that. Mom and a friend got thrown out of a store for speaking in Latvian and constantly referring to the fact that they liked this better than that and the store owner thought they were not happy about his merchandise. 
2 people like this
@Marilynda1225 (90927)
• United States
4h
@JudyEv I'm sure they taught them all sorts of naughty things to say 
@BACONSTRIPSXXX (17950)
• Torrington, Connecticut
2 Jun
That gave me a good laugh! Language mix-ups can create some funny moments, especially when learning English. It sounds like your hairdresser has a great sense of humor about it now.
2 people like this
@mininifty (119)
• Belmont, Michigan
15h
I know several people from Asia, including a close friend from South Korea, who has a few of these. Sometimes it's the one you mentioned, but sometimes it's peach=pitch, or pizza=pitsa so I am very familiar with this.
1 person likes this
@mininifty (119)
• Belmont, Michigan
1h
@JudyEv Yes, I get that. I know because it happens when words in other languages get picked up by English. Right now, those YouTube shorts about properly pronouncing the originally French word "croissant" are really popular, so I am actually fascinated when people try to figure out English words in the same way.
@changjiangzhibin89 (17234)
• China
8h
Sounds like the sh*t is a dirt word ! Your hairdresser must have been at a loss to know what to do at that moment.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (381288)
• Rockingham, Australia
8h
Yes, she was embarrassed once she realised what she'd said. She laughs about it now.
@JudyEv (381288)
• Rockingham, Australia
10h
I'm sure the receptionist would have shared the story in the staff room later.
