Michael Sometimes I listen to someone who is speaking normally, and suddenly I think I'm going crazy because the person I'm talking to clearly mispronounces a word. This often happens to me with Canadians; they generally speak quite passable American English, and then suddenly they slip in a wrong word: Did they just say "aboot" instead of "about"? Bam! Exposed! Revealed as a non-American, it's hilarious!
Recently, the spokesperson for the German Tagesschau reported on a hacker attack on devices in computer networks, and I almost fell off the sofa because he said "Rooter" instead of "Router." Every child knows that the word is pronounced "Rou-ter"; "Roo-ter" isn't really a word, but I could imagine it being some kind of drill used to clean drains by reaching the root of the blockage, a business model the company "Roto-Rooter" has been successful with in America for 82 years.
This mispronunciation seems to be common in Germany. Apparently, people there find it chic to follow the absurd British diction instead of the natural American pronunciaion. Probably in Germany, they also say "tomuh-to" instead of "tom-ay-to," and "garridge" instead of "gar-ah-ge," and "frustrayyyy-ting" instead of "frus-trating," completely crazy, these people! Sure, British English has a firm place in comedy series; it simply provides amusement when some snob talks as affectedly as Austin Powers, but in everyday life, it just seems silly. Something for my German English learners to think about!