superpeeve Oh my Gawd! - Totally unOfficial Pet Peeve Thread.

[Silent Mistwalker]

1 hour ago, Ted McGregor said:

Peeve

Best Schnitzel ever :

 

 

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

English speakers, and not just Americans, are generally pretty good at butchering the pronunciation of foreign languages and names.

Consider the American pronunciations of French names: Des Moines, Notre Dames, or Chartres Street (in New Orleans, itself also pronounced differently from the French).

The Brits do this too: my favourite example is the name given to the old Channel ports, the "Cinque Ports" (Dover, Hastings, Hythe, Romney and Sandwich), and pronounced by the British as "Sink Ports."

Canada is a bit weird in regard to French anyway because we are a bilingual nation, but there are differences in how English and French Canadians pronounce (for instance) Montreal and Quebec. And Canadian French is also different from la Française de la France, so there is that too.

[Persephone Emerald]

37 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Sorry. I've never met anyone that pronounced it that way. Then again, I just live here, I don't really associate with anyone except hubby anymore. And lately I've been learning that because of my (lack of) hearing, I've been pronouncing some English words incorrectly, like exacerbate. I've always thought it was pronounced ex-cab-er-ate. 🤷‍♀️

 

Just remember ex ass or bait. 

( I know it's "er" not "or".)

[Ayashe Ninetails]

21 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

English speakers, and not just Americans, are generally pretty good at butchering the pronunciation of foreign languages and names.

Consider the American pronunciations of French names: Des Moines, Notre Dames, or Chartres Street (in New Orleans, itself also pronounced differently from the French).

The Brits do this too: my favourite example is the name given to the old Channel ports, the "Cinque Ports" (Dover, Hastings, Hythe, Romney and Sandwich), and pronounced by the British as "Sink Ports."

Canada is a bit weird in regard to French anyway because we are a bilingual nation, but there are differences in how English and French Canadians pronounce (for instance) Montreal and Quebec. And Canadian French is also different from la Française de la France, so there is that too.

This is all so true.

Speaking of Brits, though not at all foreign, my first real language/pronunciation struggles came when I did a few semesters in London. Omg. I spent about a month in Leicestershire and it took me about that long for it to click that it's simply just "Lester." Street names blew my entire mind - Marylebone??? Mary-lee-b...MAR-LA-BONE? Spent a month in Scotland - I still have no Earthly idea what anyone said to me there (though they were all quite friendly and very sweet!). So funny! After a year and a half of complete immersion and too many potty mouth friends, I picked up way too much, though...including slang and an accent. 😏

Immersion learning is the way to go for stuff like that. I will never underestimate the power of silent letters again. 

Edited July 20, 2023 by Ayashe Ninetails

[Silent Mistwalker]

11 minutes ago, Persephone Emerald said:

Just remember ex ass or bait. 

( I know it's "er" not "or".)

It doesn't matter because I can't say it correctly without stumbling so I'll just find another word. LOL

 

[Persephone Emerald]

2 hours ago, Paul Hexem said:

Here's a peeve. People digging through your post history to take irrelevant stuff even further out of context when they want to argue with you. 

A related peeve: People who won't let a conflict go after it's already been resolved.

[Cinnamon Mistwood]

It peeves me when people pick on how other people pronounce words or treat them like they're ignorant when I generally learn new/foreign words from reading them instead of hearing them in spoken conversation.

Get over yourselves.  We're typing the words out here, so no one can hear them anyway.

[Love Zhaoying]

36 minutes ago, Persephone Emerald said:

Just remember ex ass or bait. 

( I know it's "er" not "or".)

I see from the videos Silent posted, that the American pronunciation has a "Z"!

[Scylla Rhiadra]

33 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

This is all so true.

Speaking of Brits, though not at all foreign, my first real language/pronunciation struggles came when I did a few semesters in London. Omg. I spent about a month in Leicestershire and it took me about that long for it to click that it's simply just "Lester." Street names blew my entire mind - Marylebone??? Mary-lee-b...MAR-LA-BONE? Spent a month in Scotland - I still have no Earthly idea what anyone said to me there (though they were all quite friendly and very sweet!). So funny! After a year and a half of complete immersion and too many potty mouth friends, I picked up way too much, though...including slang and an accent. 😏

Immersion learning is the way to go for stuff like that. I will never underestimate the power of silent letters again. 

One set of my grandparents, as well as my mother, were/are all British, so I had an advantage at least in terms of British place names and pronunciations. But there is of course a HUGE divide, regionally and by class, in British English, and I come from solid yeoman stock -- Kent and Middlesex peasantry and urban working class, to be precise -- so my own pronunciations of British English mark me, somewhat bizarrely, as a working class woman from southeastern England.

The good news is that I have at my disposal a veritable treasure trove of pithy sayings and insults!

[Orwar]

2 hours ago, Eddy Vortex said:

Do you have a link to the video with the funny pronunciations? I want to hear this for my self.

   Dang it, you made me go back to my watch history and sift through all the schnitzel videos again (never watch only one recipe, watch at least 10 before you decide what approach to try!). Don't remember which one they try to say 'Schweizerschnitzel' in, but here's one that almost immediately says 'snitsel'. 

 

   As for my summary from today's schnitzel research, I'm thinking either veal or beef (depends on what I can find when I go shopping), and a finer breadcrumb for the coating (I'm not a huge fan of panko crusts, too 'shard-y'), and that it'll have to be cooked in clarified butter. I'm still torn on the side dish though, either a traditional warm potato salad ooor .. What we call 'raw-cooked potatoes' (i.e. potatoes that are fried without being parboiled). And obviously capers and lemon. 

   And yes, that does sound as if it may be a touch dry .. So maybe a red wine sauce. 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

36 minutes ago, Cinnamon Mistwood said:

It peeves me when people pick on how other people pronounce words or treat them like they're ignorant when I generally learn new/foreign words from reading them instead of hearing them in spoken conversation.

Get over yourselves.  We're typing the words out here, so no one can hear them anyway.

I've actually heard it said that people who "mispronounce" relatively complex or "literary" words are actually signalling precisely that -- that they are great readers.

Pronunciation has always been a class or regional marker, and the source of a great deal of utterly unnecessary snobbishness. I think it's silly, for instance, to make fun of American pronunciations: the English language hasn't belonged solely to the English for literally hundreds of years, and American dialects are every bit as legitimate as British ones. Similarly, within Britain, class and regional dialects are at least as old, and in some cases older, than the accepted "Oxbridgian" accent: they have just as much validity.

And it would be the height of idiotic snobbery to go to the US and insist upon pronouncing Des Moines in the French manner, "day mwan" (or something like that).

And related, I think that there IS something to be said about making an effort at least to pronounce things correctly when one is actually in the place in question. I certainly wouldn't ridicule the person who asked a Parisian where to find "Noter Dame," but a lack of effort to at least try can shade over a bit into the "ugly-tourist-why-can't-they-just-talk-English" thing.

Edited July 20, 2023 by Scylla Rhiadra

[Love Zhaoying]

6 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

I've actually heard it said that people who "mispronounce" relatively complex or "literary" words are actually signalling precisely that -- that they are great readers.

Pronunciation has always been a class or regional marker, and the source of a great deal of utterly unnecessary snobbishness. I think it's silly, for instance, to make fun of American pronunciations: the English language hasn't belonged solely to the English for literally hundreds of years, and American dialects are every bit as legitimate as British ones. Similarly within Britain class and regional dialects are at least as old, and in some cases older, than the accepted "Oxbridgian" accent: they have just as much validity.

And it would be the height of idiotic snobbery to go to the US and insist upon pronouncing Des Moines in the French manner, "day mwan" (or something like that).

And related, I think that there IS something to be said about making an effort at least to pronounce things correctly when one is actually in the place in question. I certainly wouldn't ridicule the person who asked a Parisian where to find "Noter Dame," but a lack of effort to at least try can shade over a bit into the "ugly-tourist-why-can't-they-just-talk-English" thing.

In a college Computer Science class, this one student excitedly said that his favorite data structure was the "Kwee!"

It took awhile for the rest of the class to realize that he meant "Queue". 

38 years later, I am still a little surprised. But then again, "queue" is not used in the US to mean "form a line of people" so..perhaps it was not a word they ever heard spoken.

Peeve:  Darned if you laugh, Darned if you can sometimes keep from laughing.

ETA: I wonder if he played pool using a "Kuey-ball"?

Edited July 20, 2023 by Love Zhaoying

[Ayashe Ninetails]

5 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

And related, I think that there IS something to be said about making an effort at least to pronounce things correctly when one is actually in the place in question. I certainly wouldn't ridicule the person who asked a Parisian where to find "Noter Dame," but a lack of effort to at least try can shade over a bit into the "ugly-tourist-why-can't-they-just-talk-English" thing.

This is such a massive peeve of mine. People can be so kind and open when traveling if you simply just ask them about words.  How do I pronounce, what's the proper way to say, what's the word for, I'm so going to butcher this word but ___ - that's reaaaally wrong isn't it?, etc. Show them you're curious, receptive to learning, and open to receiving feedback on mistakes, and they'll talk your whole ear off and teach you way more than you can handle!

[Silent Mistwalker]

8 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

"queue" is not used in the US to mean "form a line of people"

Since when?

 

Cue ball, not queue ball. 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

6 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

This is such a massive peeve of mine. People can be so kind and open when traveling if you simply just ask them about words.  How do I pronounce, what's the proper way to say, what's the word for, I'm so going to butcher this word but ___ - that's reaaaally wrong isn't it?, etc. Show them you're curious, receptive to learning, and open to receiving feedback on mistakes, and they'll talk your whole ear off and teach you way more than you can handle!

Yeah. My French isn't awful (although it is "contaminated" a bit by Quebecois, as I'm sure Parisians would think it), but my Italian is not great. But just making the effort is often an icebreaker and signals your respect for the place, and the people you are engaging with, even if you ARE butchering it. And people definitely DO respond to that.

When I was younger I stayed at a sort of mid-market hotel in the Odeon area of the Left Bank of Paris for a while. I was SO proud of my high school and university French! My room was 101, so I'd ask for the "La clé de cent et un" at the desk. "Cent et un" was what I'd been taught, but the concierge always corrected me, with a smile or a laugh: "cent un." It became a running joke, and I'll always remember him as Monsieur Cent Un.

Edited July 20, 2023 by Scylla Rhiadra

[Love Zhaoying]

20 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

 

Cue ball, not queue ball. 

I did not write queue ball. 
 

34 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

ETA: I wonder if he played pool using a "Kuey-ball"?

The above "Kuey" was supposed to represent "cue", as if the person in the story possibly could not pronounce "cue", just as they could not pronounce "queue".

23 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Since when?

Perhaps you were taught "queue" in elementary school, we were taught "line". I probably did not learn "queue" meant the same thing until 6th grade. About 1978. Texas education.

[Rowan Amore]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I did not write queue ball. 
 

The above "Kuey" was supposed to represent "cue", as if the person in the story possibly could not pronounce "cue", just as they could not pronounce "queue".

Perhaps you were taught "queue" in elementary school, we were taught "line". I probably did not learn "queue" meant the same thing until 6th grade. About 1978. Texas education.

I learned queue watching The Avengers.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, Rowan Amore said:

I learned queue watching The Avengers.

The British show? Cool! 

[Ayashe Ninetails]

8 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Yeah. My French isn't awful (although it is "contaminated" a bit by Quebecois, as I'm sure Parisians would think it), but my Italian is not great. But just making the effort is often an icebreaker and signals your respect for the place, and the people you are engaging with, even if you ARE butchering it. And people definitely DO respond to that.

When I was younger I stayed at a sort of mid-market hotel in the Odeon area of the Left Bank of Paris for a while. I was SO proud of my high school and university French! My room was 101, so I'd ask for the "La clé de cent et un" at the desk. "Cent et un" was what I'd been taught, but the concierge always corrected me, with a smile or a laugh: "cent un." It became a running joke, and I'll always remember him as Monsieur Cent Un.

Lol, that's actually something I learned with Spanish. Do not ever try to use high school Spanish. If you learned it, just forget you ever learned it. Please. Just trash it. I was laughed at so hard by someone bilingual (American with a Venezuelan background I believe) when attempting to use it. 😂 "Nobody says that, what the?!" 🤣 Sorry sorry, don't hate me I TRIED, lmao. I was actually REALLY peeved, too (still am), because I studied so hard and had perfect grades and I got out into the real world and was quickly left wondering - what the heck did I even learn, then?!

Years later, I started taking some classes at community college and opted for German instead. I had a German instructor with a heavy accent, so I feel pretty confident she taught me, ya know...real words and phrases that exist LOL.

French is a lost cause on me. I just can't pronounce it. I would never attempt a trip to France! I'd have an easier time with Arabic (which I did try teaching myself, but pro tip - just don't try teaching yourself that one - it's a LOT). I chose my languages to dabble in based on my music preferences because I wanted to, ya know...actually understand some of the songs I was listening to!

No but, real talk, I can actually understand bits and pieces when reading Spanish. Zero clue what's being said when I hear it spoken, though. I wonder if that has something to do with it. Something about the way I learned things, perhaps. Still peeved about it, though!

[LittleMe Jewell]

5 hours ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Where are the meteors? Weren't we promised meteors?! 😩

I'm still waiting on the pony Grumpity promised us back in Oct 2018

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

But then again, "queue" is not used in the US to mean "form a line of people"

As Silent said:   Since when?  I often hear that term used that way - at movie theatres, amusement parks, and the airport for the security lines.

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

23 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Do not ever try to use high school Spanish. If you learned it, just forget you ever learned it. Please. Just trash it. I was laughed at so hard by someone bilingual (American with a Venezuelan background I believe) when attempting to use it. 😂 "Nobody says that, what the?!" 🤣

Yeah, in French a good example of that is the phrase "comme çi comme ça," meaning "like this, like that," and supposedly used in response to "comment ça va?" ("How's it going?"). Or so we were all taught in high school. It was only later I learned that almost NO adults in France use it, and they tend to think of it as either "tourist French" or the sort of thing children say. GRRRR! It's like I was sabotaged by my high school teachers!

27 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

No but, real talk, I can actually understand bits and pieces when reading Spanish. Zero clue what's being said when I hear it spoken, though. I wonder if that has something to do with it. Something about the way I learned things, perhaps. Still peeved about it, though!

I am really NOT good at foreign languages. The only non-English language I ever did well in in high school and university was Latin; I used to get like a B at best in French all the time, but I could almost always manage As in Latin. And there were two reasons for that: first, Latin is extremely logical and has relatively few idiomatic expressions or weird exceptions to "the rules," and second, because i didn't have to speak or listen to it! It was pure written translation!

[Persephone Emerald]

8 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Yeah, in French a good example of that is the phrase "comme çi comme ça," meaning "like this, like that," and supposedly used in response to "comment ça va?" ("How's it going?"). Or so we were all taught in high school. It was only later I learned that almost NO adults in France use it, and they tend to think of it as either "tourist French" or the sort of thing children say. GRRRR! It's like I was sabotaged by my high school teachers!

I am really NOT good at foreign languages. The only non-English language I ever did well in in high school and university was Latin; I used to get like a B at best in French all the time, but I could almost always manage As in Latin. And there were two reasons for that: first, Latin is extremely logical and has relatively few idiomatic expressions or weird exceptions to "the rules," and second, because i didn't have to speak or listen to it! It was pure written translation!

Unless it's a formal situation, people generally don't even ask "comment ça va?" " but just "ça va?", to which the answer might also be "ça va".

https://www.thoughtco.com/ca-va-vocabulary-1371141#:~:text=Literally translated%2C ça va means,unless the setting was casual.

Apparently "Ça va venir" is also the French equivalent to Soon TM.

[Rowan Amore]

16 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

As Silent said:   Since when?  I often hear that term used that way - at movie theatres, amusement parks, and the airport for the security lines.

 

Maybe it's a regional thing?  I don't think I've ever heard it used in Ohio unless the person using it had an English accent.

[Love Zhaoying]

9 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

Maybe it's a regional thing?  I don't think I've ever heard it used in Ohio unless the person using it had an English accent.

Exactly. I was born in 1966 and grew up / was educated in the Southern US, "queue" would have been VERY British and somewhat pretentious, and I never even heard it used that way until the mid-to-late 1970's.