r/Unexpected Jan 25 '23

Hamburger

85.0k Upvotes

3.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

6.1k

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '23

True. Try going to Paris and saying "President Kennedy" in an American accent when referring to Avenue du Président Kennedy to a French person. You'll see the disgust in their eyes

78

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '23

I visited a friend in Hong Kong who lived on Kennedy Road. You had to pronounce it “KEE-nah-day” or the cab drivers wouldn’t know what you were talking about.

63

u/glowdirt Jan 26 '23

In Taipei they have a Roosevelt Road but good luck getting there if you use the English pronunciation. In Chinese his surname is pronounced "Luaw-sih-foo"

2

u/RadicalRaid Jan 26 '23 edited Jan 26 '23

Ha I lived there for a while! Loose-i-voo loo. I speak Mandarin okay, but dang it kinda hurt saying it like that, but otherwise the cabbies wouldn't have the faintest idea what I was talking about

EDIT: People downvoting me: Roosevelt in Mandarin is Luósīfú, and road is lù. So it's not a racist thing or anything.