Americans taking offence on behalf of poor ‘victimised’ foreigners is offensive — to me
Oh dear. I may have to write a book called How to Lose More Friends and Alienate More People. In a recent episode of Top Chef, the American cooking show I appear on, I complained about the other judges’ insistence on pronouncing ‘paella’ as ‘py-ay-a’. ‘You don’t say “Bar-the-lona” or “Me-hi-co”,’ I pointed out. ‘So why say ‘py-ay-a’?’
I thought this was fairly uncontroversial, but it was as if I had just produced a white hood and a burning cross. After the other judges had picked their jaws up off the floor, one of them raised herself to her full height and said, ‘Actually, Toby, I do say “Bar-the-lona”.’ Now I know how Nick Griffin felt on Question Time. The reaction in the blogosphere was instantaneous. ‘Toby displayed no respect for either Spanish culture or cuisine on tonight’s episode,’ wrote a typical blogger.
The irony, of course, is that Johnny Foreigner doesn’t give a fig about any of this. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Spain and my pronunciation has never once been corrected. On the contrary, Spanish waiters are usually quite amused by Anglophone pronunciations of the dishes on their menus. Spaniards would no more expect me to say ‘py-ay-a’ than I would expect them to say ‘London’ instead of ‘Londres’.
No, the only people who take offence if you Anglicise foreign words are upper-middle-class Caucasian Americans. They imagine that other, less fortunate people will be insulted by your ‘imperialist’ attitude and they get offended on their behalf. In fact, to imagine that non-English-speakers are a poor, victimised group, requiring the protection of the American elite, is far more condescending than mispronouncing non-English words.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in