the worst at speaking languages

llatin   Tue Nov 03, 2009 4:27 pm GMT
Why are English people or Americans the worst at speaking Spanish or Greek? Their language has lots of phonemes but they are not able to reproduce Spanish vowels either....
ROlfo   Tue Nov 03, 2009 9:29 pm GMT
It's the attitude. They're ashamed to speak foreign languages. The harder you try to pronounce the sounds properly, the more 'gay' you are.
Boyntonville Bumpkin   Tue Nov 03, 2009 9:58 pm GMT
<<It's the attitude. They're ashamed to speak foreign languages. The harder you try to pronounce the sounds properly, the more 'gay' you are. >>

That's right. How often do you cringe when you hear some (usually young) newscaster trying to pronounce names like "Nicaragua", "Mexico", or "Monterrey" correctly (i.e. the Spanish way) in an English newscast?

On the other hand, how often do you hear Spanish newscasters bending over backweards to pronounce English names correctly:

Louisville
St Louis ("San Luiz")
Chevrolet
Boise
Spokanne
Poughkeepsie
Skaneateles
Schaghticoke
Kayaderosseras
Worcester
Greenwich
Yale ("Jail")
New York ("Nueva Jork")
Antimooner K. T.   Fri Nov 06, 2009 4:51 am GMT
There are several ways to pronounce "Louisville". The place in Kentucky has about six pronunciations-even natives don't pronounce it one way.
The place in Colorado is pronounced "LEWIS-VILLE" afaik.
Boyntonville Bumpkin   Fri Nov 06, 2009 5:37 am GMT
<<There are several ways to pronounce "Louisville". The place in Kentucky has about six pronunciations-even natives don't pronounce it one way.>>

I used to live inside the city limits Louisville KY (for a few months), and then off in the eastern suburbs near St Matthews KY (two years). I certainly wouldn't call myself a native, but I don't recall many people there pronouncing the "s". This was a long time ago, BTW -- maybe things have changed?

Confession: I never really lived in Boyntonville itself, just close by for a few years, long long ago.