I wonder if the growing number of people getting my named correctly pronounced the first time has anything to do with our generation be(com)ing much more English-savvy than those before?
To vividly recall a time in my 4th year of elementary level, when our school choir rehearsed a certain gospel song (How Great Thou Art, if you're familiar) which lyrics goes O Lord My God, when i'm in awesome wonder... For one or two rehearsals the choir director struggled to pronounce the word 'awesome'. "A-way-sam? Eh?". A-way-sam it was, for--thankfully--a short while. To think that not a single pupil--ranging from elementary to high school levels--dared correcting her as no one really knew enough to conduct such action.
How my English teacher, again in elementary, insisted on pronouncing 'cucumber' "ku-kum-ber" with e as in eskimo. Regardless corrections from a certain enlightened student, who surely mustn't have been a choir member.
She (the English teacher) being of Batak descent might just justify.
And then I think of all the people still pronouncing Chicago with its second 'C' pronounced as the first in 'church'. As in "chi-cha-go", if you know what I mean. And then, well... maybe not, after all. But we learn. We learn.
:)
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