Today at work a person called in looking for the email
address of the lady in accounts payable. There is a letter Z in the address, but
when I spelled it out they just kept repeating back “V” to me. This went on for
a few repetitions, and I was starting to get a little annoyed, but I’m
reasonably patient and decided to clarify by saying “Z as in Zebra”. Except in
Australia, the word zebra is pronounced in a way that rhymes with Debra. The words came out and it was too late to catch myself, but then a second later I realized what the actual
problem was. Z in Australia is pronounced “zed” not “zee”, so I sounded like an
idiot not once, but twice. It was almost as bad as the time I started to say “flip
flops” (an Americanism) then tried to switch to “thongs” mid word, only to end
up with... “flongs”.
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