There does seem to be two types of locals in every country: The folk who are delighted, and even honoured, that a traveller is making the effort to learn their language. The folk who believe their language is Special and any fumbling mispronunciation is an irritation beyond endurance. Thankfully, I've personally met far more the first group than the second. (And it's always an attitude to watch out for in myself when dealing with ESL people)
To be fair though, in some languages a tiny pronunciation detail can cause embarrassing misunderstandings (though not in "zwanzig", of course x-D). Crab/p soup, anyone?
There does seem to be two types of locals in every country:
ReplyDeleteThe folk who are delighted, and even honoured, that a traveller is making the effort to learn their language.
The folk who believe their language is Special and any fumbling mispronunciation is an irritation beyond endurance.
Thankfully, I've personally met far more the first group than the second.
(And it's always an attitude to watch out for in myself when dealing with ESL people)
To be fair though, in some languages a tiny pronunciation detail can cause embarrassing misunderstandings (though not in "zwanzig", of course x-D). Crab/p soup, anyone?
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, the old "The Italian who went to New York"-Joke.
Delete