Comments on: Dear Imprudence: Oh No, It’s the Pronunciation Police!

By: Katherine

Katherine — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:49:11 +0000

I agree with everything you said except your complaint that the writer mentioned that they were “57 and sound of mind”. I would say that they feel they have to say that, as they probably experience plenty of ageism in their lives, especially when complaining about someone else’s behaviour around/towards them. Not that they should have in this case.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:17:21 +0000

This post made me cringe. As a person who stutters, I have come in contact with people who try to interject words or phrases in my conversation and think silencing me is the best way to “put me out of my embarassment” (someone actually said the quoted to me once).

I am not familiar with facial recognition devices, but I know in the PWS community there are devices such as the Edinburgh Maskers (no longer in production, though) that block out outside noises to help one focus on their linguistics.

By: thetroubleis

thetroubleis — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 01:50:44 +0000

Voice recognition software also has trouble with children’s voices, which kind of sucks as I started using it as a child. There’s progress, but it’s slow going, not that I’m excusing it, just commenting.

By: Kaz

Kaz — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 01:34:17 +0000

There was a bit about voice recognition software that made my new FWD bells go off.

Just wanting to say to this that as a stutterer I’ve always assumed that voice recognition software won’t work for me. It would be cool but I am just too cynical to think people worked on it.

And, yeah, the post makes me go ARGH. If I got an inkling that anyone thought about me like this or that they were laughing about my stutter behind my back, they would be on my “never ever speak to again” list in a split second (with an exception where I tell them off for their complete failure at being semi-decent human beings). The advice was good aside from that, but that bit…!!!

By: Tera

Tera — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 01:11:01 +0000

@ Kaitlyn,

“[M]y advice is much shorter – grow up.

That was my advice, too–exactly. Either that or “Get over yourselves,” although that’s longer.

I used to frequent a forum for people with nonverbal learning disability (NLD) as well as parents of kids with NLD. Certain parents would consistently call people out on proper spelling and grammar. This forum was for people with a learning disability/communication impairment, and some of us/our parents had other learning disabilities (like dyslexia) or types of neuroatypicalness also. So somebody finally said: “You *do* know that this is a forum for people with learning disabilities, right?”

By: doorslam

doorslam — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:31:18 +0000

I do a similar thing. I probably have some sort of dyslexia (it’s not bad enough to get a doctor’s opinion), and I’ll often say or write the wrong word without realizing it. It can be hugely embarrassing and I can get really upset when people point it out, because it’s out of my control and that upsets me. It’s no surprise that the friend doesn’t react well to their attempts to “help”, considering the tone of the letter.

By: anjak-j

anjak-j — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:41:16 +0000

I know if I found my friends were laughing at me behind my back for my communication difficulties I’d be really angry. And I’d probably dump them as well. Demeaning people, even without them knowing, is just not cool.

By: hsofia

hsofia — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:31:21 +0000

Lousy “friends!” What a jerk!

By: K

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:04:39 +0000

One thing I would have liked Prudence to mention was that, for some people, constantly bringing up the issue would actually exacerbate a disorder like this. I know that when people talk about ways to “fix” my speech impediment, it’s likely going to flare up around them because I’m overly stressed and focused trying to reign it in.

I’m sure Friend realizes that the couple is constantly badgering her about her pronunciation, and I’m sure it stresses her out even more and exacerbates the situation. She’s probably overly focused on convincing these jackasses that she has a good vocabulary and whatnot, because, from the letter, it’s fairly obvious that these people harp on her about her pronunciation fairly often.

By: Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:04:10 +0000

Adelaide Dupont – I’m glad Prudence called out the use of “brutal”. I don’t know about dehumanizing, but it is a strong word for this situation. Of course, the fact that the letter writer felt compelled to write/ask this says something not so good about hir. I know politeness is important, but sometimes just telling people the truth can go a long way.

I also didn’t like the use of the word “ugly” in the letter.

The letter writer’s word choice makes it sound like the friend is antagonizing them (by her mere existence!) on purpose.

Which is why my advice is much shorter – grow up.

This letter reminds me of an article I read about facial recognition software and how it thinks East Asians are blinking when they’re not, or doesn’t see dark-skinned people. There was a bit about voice recognition software that made my new FWD bells go off. Some accents can be hard for the computer. It sounds like most recognition software is made by and for white, English speaking, TABS. You know, the “norm.” (Of course, I hope that voice recognition people work with people fluent in “major” languages, so that you’re not required to know English to use it.)