American English: An Embarrassing Moment

American English can be tricky. Ask anyone, native American English speaking or not, and they may have an anecdote to share. A client, originally from Japan, once told me that he could understand a French business person speaking English better than an American one. Strange? Not really; I think it makes perfect sense. When, as foreigners, we learn English as a second language, we are learning a 'standard' form of the language—one that is universally understood by millions of learners worldwide. It's no wonder that misunderstandings and communication issues arise when international professionals find themselves embedded in American culture. A recent embarrassing moment I can remember happened in graduate school. I was studying Linguistics where the word pedagogy often came up when speaking about teaching language strategies. I'd never had to utter the word out loud before and had no idea how to pronounce it. The unfortunate moment came when I had to read it out loud in class. As I read it, I knew it didn't sound right (did it? How could I know?). I quickly realized, from the reaction of my peers, that I was right; I had made a fool of myself in front of very smart people. I thought less of myself for the rest of the afternoon until I realized that there was absolutely no way I would've known that in the word pedagogy, the second /g/ is soft. Nowhere in our ESL books does a rule exist to show that what I was doing was wrong. And so, English to me, even 30 years later, remains a challenge every time I come across a new word. But now, all the wiser, whenever in doubt, I ask my dear friends - because if you do not, you will never know. Next time you find yourself across the table from a colleague whose birthplace is not America, ask them to tell you about an embarrassing English learning moment. I bet you they have one. And while you are at it, share one of your own.