Oh, this one is embarrassing. We were at an aquarium a few days ago and a really lovely German gentleman, who I understood to be a tourist, saw how enthused my son was to observe a tank of lobsters. He began explaining to DS about how lobsters store and lay eggs, in quite some detail and very gently.

DS noticed his accent-- lobster sounded more like "lobsta". Clearly thinking this gentleman's information was of dubious quality, DS screwed up his face and said in such a contemptuous tone, "it's not called a lobSTA, it's a lobSTER!"

Thankfully the gentleman took it in stride, but I was a bit mortified and wanted to crawl under the lobster's rock. We had a little discussion about how there are many languages, how people have accents when they are speaking in another language, and how it's courteous to overlook perceived mispronunciation by foreigners.

It felt like that episode of the Simpsons with Freddy Quimby and the chowderr/chowda pronunciation debacle.


What is to give light must endure burning.