Morjes!

Welcome to my blog. I write about fitting in, sticking out, and missing the motherland as a serial foreigner.

Pronouncing current events incorrectly

Pronouncing current events incorrectly

Every once in a while I'm listening to a US-based news podcast and realize that I've been pronouncing something (usually a name) incorrectly.

Robert Mueller. In my mind it was always MYOO-lurr. But my American podcasts tell me that it's MULL-err. OK.

To the extent that the occasion to pronounce Harvey Weinstein's name ever arose, I said it WINE-stine. And now I know it's WINE-steen.

Here in Finland, Brexit is called BREKS-it. But it seems that Americans pronounce it BREGGS-it.

The opposite of this problem is thoroughly enjoying the way Finns pronounce Jessie Diggins. The YLE commentators were super excited when she edged out Sweden (Finland's sports arch-nemesis) for the gold during the partner sprint cross-country skiing, and "Dzhessika Deeggeenz" sounds really adorable when pronounced by an exhuberant Finn. They interviewed her parents after the race and everything (like YLE specifically, not a generic packaged feed).

At the dentist in Finland

February 2018 books

February 2018 books