The best examples that come to mind are when ordering food. As examples:
• You speak English and Spanish and are ordering a burrito
• You speak Thai and English and are ordering Tom Yum
I imagine it could depend on numerous things:
• You primary language or ethnicity
• What sort of restaurant
• Who you’re dining with
• Who you’re ordering from
• and probably a lot more…
Cater to the audience. Being understood is more useful than being right.
Pronounce it properly then give the equivalent in whatever language you’re talking in. That’s what I do.
That’s a great way to put it, though sometimes I run into situations where I know some of my audience will understand language A and not B and some will understand B but not A.
I always end up just freezing; it’s like my brain is rebooting or something.
There’s pretty much always time to explain yourself if someone doesn’t understand. You could say it the first way that comes to mind, then pause and say it the second way. It doesn’t have to be perfect, you just have to communicate. Sometimes you have to use your hands and feet, and that’s OK too.
I feel like I owe you money for this kinda therapy…
I attempt to change to the pronunciation of the original language of that word
Generally, if I know there is a common loan word, then I say it in the language I am speaking (burrito is close enough for example), otherwise I try to say it in the native language and native intonation (quesadilla = kesadi-ya). I generally try to see what will be the most understanding.
With people’s names I will try to default to their native version, but once I know them for a while I’ll get if they seem to prefer the English or imported version. I’ll start with O-ka-mu-ra for example with proper Japanese intonation and cadence, but if they like the bouncy American style of pronunciation Oke-a-moo-rah better then I’ll use that. A 2nd generation Japanese-American for instance might be more familiar with the latter. Conversely, a name like George/Jorge, I’ll say George in other languages but if they like Joーji (Japanese) or Hor-hey (Spanish) better I’ll move to that regardless of what language I’m speaking.
Whichever way I learned it first.
Depends on the language being used and who I’m talking to
I’m a native English speaker living in Germany and if I’m speaking German, every word is coming out with a German accent. It makes Germans cringe, but if I switch back and forth, I completely lose my accent. That means that I pronounce, for example, Microsoft while speaking German with a long i, a trilled r, and a voiced s.
I use the language that I think my interlocutor would prefer. If I don’t know, then I default to the language of the social context, unless I specifically want to practise a language at that moment. If I want to practise, then I ask first.
Honestly it’s mostly unconscious for me, the brain just does it’s thing sometimes.
I’m so jealous.
Part of the reason I asked is because I want to get to this point so badly but my brain just freezes whenever I’m unsure of everyone in the audience’s understanding of both languages
😣🫣If that’s what you’re facing, maybe try thinking of it like you’re trying to get to know them a little. If you start talking about say, your recent effort to make sambal oelek for use in say noodles, asking if they’re familiar with the name, talk about how it has some origin in French cooking from the colonial period, add some info about how you like to use it etc.
Like if I’m ordering food, I’ll always go for the full pronunciation, then maybe follow up with the server or whoever asking if it’s the dish with this or that main focus.
I also love having fun with themed dinner parties with friends and the such, give full presentation on the pronunciation, it’s history in different areas that make it slightly different, give everyone a copy of the recipe (minus a few key but subtle ingredients lol) in both the original language and English.
All in all I say just try to make it a chance to be enjoyed one way or another and it doesn’t take long to get your confidence flowing lol. I totally empathize, I used to be absolutely mortified about the same thing, still do sometimes, just less so these days.
By how well known the word is by the people I speak to. English is usually not an issue. Germans speak english quite well. Languages’ Common phrases like yes, no, thank you are also often known. So I pronounce these as a native speaker would.
When ordering food? It’s a fine line when I don’t speak the language myself. I.E. ordering spanish couisine but not knowing spanish. I try not to butcher the pronunciation, but trying to lean into it would feel pretentious and awkward to me.
It depends.
Let’s say I’m trying to ask an acquaintance their phone number so I can add them on WhatsApp or Signal. Honestly it’s kind of ridiculous to use the proper pronunciation of Whatsapp im Brazil, so I use the popular way (it’s something like “oah-tchi-zap”).
Unless I’m actually speaking with someone in their mother language I just default to the Brazilian version of the name. Otherwise I will try and match their pronunciation - it’s nice to train and also I think it’s polite.
I’ll pronounce Spanish words in an American accent, but using Spanish pronunciation. For example, if I say “I would love a quesadilla, but I don’t have any queso or tortillas.” I’ll pronounce the “que” as “kay” instead of “kway” and the “illa” as “eeya” instead of “ila”, but in an American accent. The exception being if I’m pronouncing a place name, then I’ll pronounce it with English pronunciation. Like “Los Angeles”, I pronounce as “loss anjiless”.
I say burrito the American-English way because it’s also a word in English. But if I say “arepa” I say it the way it’s pronounced in Spanish.
This trend of pronouncing it the way I first heard extends to dialects, too: Words that I first learned in an Argentine context I tend to pronounce in the Argentine way (eg. the letter elle makes a “zh” or “ĵ” sound) versus the rest of my Spanish which is more (central) Mexican.
I have often irritated or confused acquaintances when using famous quotations or phrases from Latin, which I pronounce in a Classical, rather than Italianate manner (eg. hard Cs and soft Vs).
It’s kind hard to write clearly in print about how we pronounce things, huh?
As a funny aside I was serving a restaurant patron the other day who was Spanish-only. The restaurant I wait tables at is Mediterranean cuisine, and I stumbled because I couldn’t remember how to say “falafel” in Spanish.
I just stopped in the middle of a sentence for what felt like a minute but was probably only a handful of seconds before I realized the word I wanted was “falafel”: It’s not an English word originally and I didn’t need to translate it at all.
I was surprised by seeing “ñoqui” on a menu and realizing I actually knew what it was.
It depends. “Burrito” is commonly used in English so it would be a bit silly to trill the ‘rr’. For words that aren’t as common in English it’s more likely to be the Spanish pronunciation. Place names generally too.
I’m not very bilingual but I grew up with English and have spent a few months in Latin America.
I noticed that in English I now say Mexico the Spanish way when I’m with local people, but the English way when I’m visiting friends in the US. I always say it the Spanish way in Spanish, and don’t think I use any regional accents.
I’m Chinese-American. Primary language is English, I don’t speak Cantonese very well, and I don’t really speak Mandarin (but both are based on the same language system so its not that hard to convert from Cantonese). If I were to go to a Chinese restaurant, I’m gonna speak, in this order: Cantonese, then its Mandarin, then English, but most of the staff probably speaks Cantonese. I’m not gonna be like “I want a 燒賣, thank you”, like… that sounds so out of place lmfao, just speak the whole thing in the same language.
