Fun with (mis-)-Pronunciation

So, here are the dangers of pedagogy when you're teaching a subject area outside of your field of professional study AND don't much care about proper pronunciation: 

Within the last week in ENGL 373a, my Beowulf to Milton class, my students have (kindly) corrected my pronunciations on the following:
  1. (Southwark (apparently it's "south-verk," not "south-wark" -- this one was particularly embarrassing because I had just told them that the Thames is pronounced "Tems," not "Thames"!)
  2. Boccaccio ("boc-ca-cho", not "bo-ca-chi-o")!
  3. Scheherazade ("sche-her-a-zaud," not "sche-zhur-zaw-de")!
And then! We were discussing the Hundred Years War for Chaucer, and somebody asked me if that was when Joan of Arc lived. I answered with an intelligent, "Um," because I honestly didn't know. 

I'm so lucky my students seem to like me, cuz oh man, if they didn't .....

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Genre Fantasy Bestsellers through 1990

A Look at Charles R. Saunders and "Sword & Soul"

NEW POETS OF RUM-RAM-RUF: Zach Weinersmith & Boulet