pronounciation

In my Japanese class that I'm taking, I heard the professor make the same remark that I've heard in different forms from people all my life, regarding one language or another. "You want to say karaoke right, not like KAR E OH KEE, so you don't sound like an ingnorant American".

Keep in mind that he was talking about going to karaoke here in the US, not in another country.

So riddle me this, Batman. Would that same person consider any foreign person speaking English as "ignorant" when they misprounounce words? If you speak to someone who learned English as a second language, they will almost invariably say words incorrectly. Speak to someone who is Japanese or Indian or Mexican, and they will speak English in an accented way, colored by the language that they know.

Why is the "ignorance" title reserved exclusively for Americans? Should I sneer at any Japanese person who says "preese" to me, instead of please? Does that show that they're arrogant and ignorant and don't give a shit about speaking correctly? Or should I not be a dick about it, and realize that if I understand what they're saying, and that they're trying to speak my language, and get the stick out of my ass? I choose the latter.

Every language makes foreign words their own. The Japanese have bastardized television into "terebi", and personal computer into "pasocon". Is this arrogance? I don't think so. Is it different than us taking foreign words and pronouncing them in ways that fit our pronounciation style? No. Even in the middle of a Japanese sentence, a Japanese person saying a word in English will prounounce it according to Japanese standards. This is *exactly the same* as an English speaker saying a foreign word according to English standards. Note that I'm simply defending the use of foreign words in English. If I'm speaking Japanese, I will strive to say each word in a way that would be considered correct to a native speaker.

It's a simple matter of several issues coming into play. The first is when you hear it from native English speakers, puffed up with pride over knowing something others don't, and wanting to lord their knowledge over others by deriding them. The second is that Americans are the universal strawman, and calling them ignorant and arrogant won't offend anyone, because we're the big bad punching bag. It reinforces stereotypes, so it's comfortable. Nevermind that it's mean and discriminatory, when you're an American you're supposed to just grin and bear it, you're powerful enough that you don't have the right to object.

People need to step back and realize how stupid they're being, and how hypocritical. If you're going to pass judgement on misprounounciation, you have to do it universally. Or, you could just take a deep breath, realize that it really is okay that we all speak each other's languages differently, and stop annoying the rest of us.