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This is a thread about why I use correct pronunciation of Spanish on the air. I received a phone message this week from a man who was upset about my pronunciation of Spanish names. Hear a portion so you get the idea of his concerns. soundcloud.com/lulu-garcia-na…
My thoughts are these. A) I'm bilingual. I'm not affecting an accent or trying to be pretentious. I speak the language. I think people aren't used to hearing things pronounced correctly because we are not used to hosts from different backgrounds on the air.
B) Actually everyone tries to pronounce the words correctly. At NPR we ask native speakers to give us the best pronunciation of their city or name and then we give it a try. It is anglicized only because we frequently fail at getting it right. The anglo version is imperfect.
C) I know sometimes its hard to listen to if you have a stream of words in what seems like a foreign language. So I do mix it up if that happens. Soften it or slow it down. But I'm not going to mispronounce it.
D) A frequent question is why don't we say PAREE for Paris. Well, there are longstanding English words for some capitol cities. Of course we use them if we are speaking in English. But I will say the President of France's name correctly (I also speak French).
I could go on (and obviously the caller mixes up an accent from East London with a language like Spanish). But this is the way I do it. It is still the subject of debate. There are no rules, necessarily. But I feel good about where I've landed. Appreciate your thoughts too! LMK
And the reason I'm writing about this is that I do feel we should be more transparent about why we do things in the media and get feedback.
Great point!
