Trying too hard to sound right

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This morning I went for my walk around the museum in Trivandrum, listening to podcasts. One was a BBC documentary about the young generation in Iran. What spoilt the content was the Iranian narrator’s accent. Many young Iranians these days work too hard on the accent, then get confused, e.g. pronouncing v as a w. The most nauseating of course is Iranians saying “Ee-waan” and worse, “Ee-way-nian”, as this lady did. A soft “r” is acceptable, as in normal English and American parlance, but “w” is going too far… I listened to the whole show, but it was only just preferable to silence!

I get the most satisfaction listening to commentators who have good knowledge of English but make no attempt to hide their foreign accent. Hazhir Teimourian is a good example.

Category: Language | Tags: , , ,

2 comments on “Trying too hard to sound right”

  1. I really hate ‘Teh-wan’…. Tehwan??? Where is Tehwan!? For some reason Press TV do this a lot which is a shame as they make some nice programs showing a modern side of Iran.
    • Irrelevant to your discussion sorry. I’m expecting to have a son in near future and wondering how does the name ” KAVEH” sound in UK, and North America. I love this name for my son but not sure If he would be happy with my choice on his name due to some issues pronouncing “Kaveh” . any advise? Thanks in advance. We live in Canada.