No, he was being mean and tried to cover it up as a joke when called out.

Again the YTA crowd needs a few more brain cells

We have a guy who is living and studying in Paris without being able to speak French. He is using a French person as a translator as he could not function in the country without one. Then he berates the person for being unable to pronounce a word correctly, and berates them again for 'not having a sense of humour'. Yeah, as I said, he is *using* the 'friend', and if he doesn't sort himself out soon, he isn't going to have a friend, nor a translator.

I once had it the other way around. I'm Dutch and dutch is known to be a pretty hard language to really master perfectly (even for dutchies!). I met this guy at a party and he told me he got here only a year ago. I didn't even hear an accent and complimented him on his great dutch. Another guy heard me and told me that it was clearly racism that I gave this guy this compliment. Because "I should not find it amazing that this guy learned Dutch so quickly"? I've never heard anyone speak Dutch so well only after one year... White, black, brown, it's just a hard language.

The YTA crowd are probably also rude americans. Seriously, to only know one language nowadays is embarrassing.

I'm an Englishman that spent some years in Spain and did my best to learn the language. I often made mistakes but because people knew I was making the effort I rarely got laughed at and if I did it was because I had made an error that in itself was funny - so I laughed too (eg. estoy caliente/tengo calor & pollo/polla). Once you have really tried to learn a second, third or more language then laughing at someone's efforts is no longer a reaction, you just want to help someone improve. It's not just Americans, the British too are convinced that thier language is the only one worth speaking (despite it only being the third most spoken language on the planet). I have never been brilliant at Spanish, but I am ashamed of most of my fellow Brits that just think if they speak louder then that will make them understood. There is one 'YTA' comment that really makes my blood boil, such blind arrogance! I'm glad that a second language was compulsory at school when I went.

America is getting more illiterate by the day so don't worry about mis-pronouncing words.

I don't understand why someone would spend a year at the Sorbonne and not bother to learn French. Max sounds like the kind of guy upon whom time abroad is wasted. OP is NTA

Always, always, always encourage anyone who's making an effort to communicate. Especially when you're the fish out of water. I had the shoe on the other foot once, when a colleague - a native Spanish speaker living in the US - publicly "corrected" my double L pronunciation in a room full of people. I took her aside and said not only was she rude, but she wasn't even correct.

As an American who is angry about the difference in pronunciation between despite and respite, I am on OP's side. English is dumb with so many loopholes. Aw-ree makes perfect sense phonetically. I was mocked an Egyptian friend because I mispronounced a Middle Eastern city. Noone likes to have their mistakes called out and repeated incessantly....

I am very slowly learning Spanish (in the US), and none of my Latin coworkers have ever mocked me for mispronouncing a word, or for using the wrong word in a sentence. Max is a culo.

"whyy arre youuu soooo meeeaaannn...?" Honestly, if you can't take it, don't give it! #Melt. OP = NTA

I HATE people who condescendingly correct other people's pronounciation or make fun of them because of their accent. I started learning English when I was 16, mostly by reading, and had almost no opportunities to speak in this language. I am always ashamed while speaking English because I heard few too many people laughing at my accent. I KNOW that I've a hard eastern-European accent that likely won't ever go away. You really don't have to make fun of me because of this, as I do my best to communicate even if it's not perfect.

I'm a native English speaker, and I don't know how to pronounce 'awry' or what that word even means. I'll probably Google it in a minute, but this is the first time I've ever read it.

Tell Max to STFU in all three language. Same goes for the YTA's.

NTA. His friend is American and gas lit him when he called him out. Classic!

I mispronounce words in English often I have a slight speech impediment so people correct me often so I am ok with that what I am not ok with if someone teases me about it. You are trying your best and no one gets it perfectly.

I have a friend who is born and raised in the US, speaks English well but mispronounces a few words constantly, like epitome (epi-tomb). I remember having to read out loud in elementary school and said clergy (cler-ghee) and got mocked and ridiculed. Like ffs, we're just imperfect humans trying to communicate.

I am an American who grew up in Germany and went through the German school system. I remember when we started learning English, I felt like I was learning a whole new language lol jk; but I remember asking my mom if something was wrong with our English. That's when I learned the difference between American English and "The Queens" English lol. Certain words and phrases still make me laugh :) Not all English is created equal LOL

Given the state of just our voting population here in the US, I imagine that a good percentage or 'Murcans couldn't pronounce "awry" if they saw it written.

Max is American ..what do you expect? They can't speak proper English themselves. We're talking about the people, who are the reason why the warning "Do not dry pets in the microwave oven" is issued in the manuals. And yes, I'm not a native speaker myself. And before I'll geht slammed: My native language is German, but I'm also fluent ( but not native level) in English, and basic Level in Dutch, Polish, Japanese, and passive skills in Lower German, Latin and ancient Greek.

I spent many years working with a majority of non-native English speakers and learned very early to be extremely careful when offering any advice, lest they take it as a criticism. Very rarely got it wrong, but some (very few) people are very sensitive, seem to feel that their English is good enough and refuse to try and improve. Conversely I'm always very open to being corrected when speaking French or German (let alone the other languages I know less well). Never has anyone mocked my pronunciation however bad it is, and I think this guy is perfectly justified in his reaction.

YTAs only put on the list to generate reactions. Why are you still falling for it?

English, especially American English is wicked hard to learn. At its core, our language is the robber baron of languages. A third of our words we just stole from other languages. We don't even pronounce words the same in different parts of our own country. Hell, words don't even mean the same thing depending where you are. (as an example; in parts of our country wicked only means bad, or morally corrupt. (Hitler was a wicked man.) In my part of the country wicked can mean that, but it also can mean very or extreme (He was wicked happy) NTA. your friend was being an Ahole.

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

I only read the headline, so let me take a wild stab. People mocked each other and should have laughed it off, but didn't. Neither person will give in and OP thinks because they did the mocking second that they were justified. Was I right?