The hazards of pronouncing foreign names on air
Trying too hard to get it right is better than not trying at all
A journalist named Antonio Mendoza—played by Jimmy Smits, an actor with Puerto Rican heritage—walks into a new job at a television station. The room of (non-Hispanic) old hands begin discussing “our coverage of Nicaragua”, with a preposterously Spanish pronunciation of the country’s name. Someone offers Antonio “enchiladas”, again with an absurdly overdone Spanish accent. Another brags that he learned to love Latino food in “Los Angeles” in the same vein.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “When in Kyiv”
Culture May 13th 2023
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