What is your pet peeve of the day?

[Meadbh]

Peking duck is still one of my favorite dishes. Beijing duck just sounds wrong, and probably tastes bad too.

I have had Beijing duck in Beijing. It was delicious. But the washroom was awful.

When did Bombay become Mumbai? And when did Madras become Chennai?

I am going to Firenze in 2016. Some of you may know it as Florence.

 

[braumeister]

I've never understood why people insist on translating place names. Why not just call a city what its inhabitants call it? Honestly, this has bothered me since I was a kid.

Also, we do it inconsistently. Munich instead of München and Prague instead of Praha, but Rio de Janeiro and Paris.

Definitely a pet peeve of mine.

 

[NW-Bound]

I have had Beijing duck in Beijing. It was delicious. But the washroom was awful.

When did Bombay become Mumbai? And when did Madras become Chennai?

I am going to Firenze in 2016. Some of you may know it as Florence.

Joking about roast duck aside, I think Beijing is a lot closer to how the Chinese call their capital than Peking. Perhaps they had been bothered by the "P" over the years, and only in the late 20th century gained enough clout to demand it changed.

I do not know about Bombay and Mumbai, but suspect the same story.

I've never understood why people insist on translating place names. Why not just call a city what its inhabitants call it? Honestly, this has bothered me since I was a kid.

Also, we do it inconsistently. Munich instead of München and Prague instead of Praha, but Rio de Janeiro and Paris.

Definitely a pet peeve of mine.

Not my pet peeve, but I wonder the same. Often, a phonetic transcription is needed because of the native written language. It is not just languages such as Chinese, Japanese, or Arabic, but even Cyrillic or Greek cause difficulties. But why change Italian names?

I think the French and English versions of place names got picked up by other countries, then became de facto international names.

 

[braumeister]

I think the French and English versions of place names got picked up by other countries, then became de facto international names.

Sometimes, but not necessarily.

In Portuguese for example, a couple of well-known cities in the USA are Nova Iorque and São Francisco.

 

[MichaelB]

Incorrect pronunciation is not limited to names of foreign cities. My relatives call the US capital "Warshington". Someday they may look closely and see there is no "r" in that name.

 

[Meadbh]

Incorrect pronunciation is not limited to names of foreign cities. My relatives call the US capital "Warshington". Someday they may look closely and see there is no "r" in that name.

I have first cousins who remove an R from my name. They are from Massachussetts, where they left their cah in Hahvahd Yahd.

 

[NW-Bound]

Someday they may look closely and see there is no "r" in that name.

But they will argue that there should have been.

In different languages, often people who speak a dialect will change the spelling of a word to match their own phonetic distortion. What can you do? Put them in jail?

 

[samclem]

Why not just call a city what its inhabitants call it?

City? Heck, whole countries get mangled names. I had a rental car in Germany (aka Deutschland) many years ago and got very lost looking for a town in Bavaria (aka Bayern). I'm not very smart, but when I saw the "Welcommen to Osterreich" (aka Austria) sign, I figured I was probably headed in the wrong direction.

 

[NW-Bound]

That would certainly throw me in a loop. We have not toured Germany or Austria, by the way.

On people's wrong writing to match their mispronunciation, I am sure we have all seen people who write "should of" or "could of" instead of "should have" or "could have". They talk like that too. It is not just wrong spelling, but the grammatical error is so grave. ARGHHH! It just drives me insane.

 

[Mulligan]

I've never understood why people insist on translating place names. Why not just call a city what its inhabitants call it? Honestly, this has bothered me since I was a kid.



Also, we do it inconsistently. Munich instead of München and Prague instead of Praha, but Rio de Janeiro and Paris.



Definitely a pet peeve of mine.

Be kind to us unlearned. We have never been there. We just pronounce the way others pronounce it. . I did not know until just now Munich and Prague were not pronounced correctly.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[samclem]

Why not just call a city what its inhabitants call it?

City? Heck, whole countries get mangled names. I had a rental car in Germany (aka Deutschland) many years ago and got very lost looking for a town in Bavaria (aka Bayern). I'm not very smart, but when I saw the "Welcommen to Osterreich" (aka Austria) sign, I figured I was probably headed in the wrong direction.

Oh--other (esoteric, but related) pet peeves about German roads/driving:
- No right turns on red lights (generally)
- Use of only white lines to mark roads. I never appreciated the US use of yellow lines to separate opposing traffic and white lines for same-way lanes until I drove in Germany. It's usually not a problem, but it can get confusing in airports and other places with lanes that switch back or have access roads.
- On the Autobahn, there are no signs telling which cardinal direction a road goes. In the US, you can get on I10 Eastbound or Westbound. In Germany you are offered the chance get on the A9 to Beyruth or Nurnberg. If you know you want to go north, but don't know where those towns are, you are SOL.

 

[theOAP]

Why not just call a city what its inhabitants call it?

Fair enough. I'll remember that the next time I go to
Llanfairwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch.

 

[NW-Bound]

Well, the above long name spelling is actually easy to remember once you realize that it is just like how it is pronounced.

See: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch (or Llanfair PG for short) - Pronunciation.

 

[Chuckanut]

I learned to read and write English long before I had anybody to converse with. I think that must be the reason grammatical errors and mispellings, particularly my own when I later spot them, bother the hell out of me.

My parents spoke a dialect version of Italian that often left off the last vowel in a word. For example Provolone cheese was "Provolon". The first thing I had to do when I started learning it on my own was to un-learn my parents pronunciation. For some reason, my grandmother loved to pronounce the 'h' in front of Italian words where it was supposed to be silent. Sometimes she even added an 'h' sound where there was no 'h' at all. It must have been revenge for English words like knife.

Among other Italian quirks I have found are:

Pasticceria can be a pastry shop or a small bite size pastry. Be careful what you order or you might be buying the entire place!

Italians also have similar words that vary only because the middle letter is or is not repeated, such as anno and ano. If you don't emphasize the double n's in anno (meaning a year), you pronounce the another word that is not quite as nice.

And, of course, Italian often uses what seems like a double negative to an English speaker.

 

[Tailgate]

$20 an hour

One night at the Hyatt Regency in Austin... Hotel was practically empty. 1/3 of the hotel is being remodeled so the hotel gladly offered upgrades of a view that didn't overlook construction...only $30 more.

$19 to self park. Every time the doorman opened the door for you they seemed to expect a tip.

Self-inflicted frustration.. I should have booked a value hotel. Room price would have been the same, but parking would be free and you wouldn't see staff with their hands out at every corner.

 

[Walt34]

Incorrect pronunciation is not limited to names of foreign cities. My relatives call the US capital "Warshington". Someday they may look closely and see there is no "r" in that name.

That's just the Pennsylvania accent, where on an warm day one might "warsh your car".

Somehow I picked it up from either my father or visiting PA relatives frequently and got teased about it at school.

 

[splitwdw]

That's just the Pennsylvania accent, where on an warm day one might "warsh your car".

Somehow I picked it up from either my father or visiting PA relatives frequently and got teased about it at school.

Not just Pennsylvania and goes back quite some time to early English/Irish settlers, like the word "arse".

 

[Chuckanut]

One night at the Hyatt Regency in Austin... Hotel was practically empty. 1/3 of the hotel is being remodeled so the hotel gladly offered upgrades of a view that didn't overlook construction...only $30 more.

$19 to self park. Every time the doorman opened the door for you they seemed to expect a tip.

Yes. I had a similar experience a big name hotel. A cheap room rate but $10 to park the car and NO in-and-out privileges. The only restaurant within walking distance was the hotel restaurant and they new it ($$$$) . $15 for internet access. And the room was that just that - a room, decently sized, ok furnishings, and with the smell of cleaner that never goes away and no window that can be opened to air it out. Not so good.

Fool me once.......

 

[splitwdw]

...Almost as bad as using the term tread when referencing a thread on the forum....

I assumed that it was just a typo.
I wonder why people think that when they are online searching the Internet that "online" is two words.

 

[youbet]

I used to say "warsh" instead of "wash." (DW says I still slip into the old habit from time to time.) Years ago, a buddy would give me a load of crap for it. He was relentless, teasing and making fun of me whenever I'd slip up. One day he had an urgent need to borrow my pickup to haul something and came running over to get the keys. "Sorry," I said, "I'll be using the truck this afternoon. I'm going to 'warsh' it." And I stuck to my guns even though it put him in a jam.

Hee... hee... Our relationship is still a bit strained even though many years have passed! But I got the truck "warshed" and he got to strap a couch to the roof of his sedan. We both won!

 

[REWahoo]

Almost as bad as using the term tread when referencing a thread on the forum.

That's just the Pennsylvania accent, where on an warm day one might "warsh your car".

I assumed that it was just a typo.

I think Walt may have nailed it.

 

[ls99]

Computer generated oh so sincere happy birthday email greetings. What programmers bright idea was that?

A few days ago had deleted a bunch of them.

 

[youbet]

Computer generated oh so sincere happy birthday email greetings.

I'll expand that to spam and junk email in general.

 

[NW-Bound]

Here's something more than a pet peeve, in fact it got me fairly upset until I calmed down and decided not to let it ruin an occasion.

In a recent dinner cruise in Hawaii, it took a long time to board, and the line hardly moved. It turned out that passengers had to run through a gauntlet where their photo was taken, to be sold to them for $20 when they disembarked later.

I know there were people whose vacation was to commemorate an anniversary, and they would appreciate a photo of the occasion. But for others, heck, if I bought every of these expensive photos, I would run out of wall space to display them. I don't know how many of these photos got purchased, but every guest went through the motion in order to be polite. There was no way to cut through the line, skip this photo op, and get quickly to the deck to enjoy what we paid money for.

And then, next day the same thing happened with a raft expedition to go snorkeling. Luckily, the ritual did not take as long with only 20 passengers.

Good grief! What's next? Will they make us pose for photos before letting us into a museum, a castle, a national park?

 

[braumeister]

What's next? Will they make us pose for photos before letting us into a museum, a castle, a national park?

It's already more common than you might think.
Last year we had the same experience simply entering a museum. Bought our tickets, went through the turnstile and found ourselves unable to proceed into the actual exhibits without going through the photo routine.

I got a bit grumpy and refused to let them take my picture, which seemed to unsettle them but they let us pass. On the way out we passed through the wall of photos they were selling people as they left.

This was a large and popular attraction in the USA. My thought was someone figured it wouldn't hurt to bring in a little extra cash. It's bad enough you can't exit any museum or similar attraction these days without being routed through the gift shop!