Did you ever feel stupid? (and gentle corrections)

[Jennifer Piersol]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., Amanda Lewanski <editor at t...> wrote:

> --Amanda (don't even start me on oxymoron or epitome)


It's funny you mention epitome... My husband has been pronouncing 
this word wrong ever since he's begun reading in earnest (he's been 
*forced* to read his whole life, so he's never developed a love of 
"pleasure reading" until now)... and I knew that sometime it would 
come back to haunt him, especially since we're members of a book 
group, and learning that he'd been pronouncing it wrong *there* (in 
front of fellow college professors and other professionals) would be 
much more embarrassing than a gentle revelation from me.  So I showed 
him an email I'd been drafting (and read it aloud to ask his 
approval), and without him even realizing that I was (covertly) 
correcting his pronunciation, I guided him in the right direction.  
He admitted to me later that he'd been a little confused - and that 
he hadn't really connected /EP - i - tohm/ (forgive my lack of 
standard phonetic symbols) and /e - PIT - o - me/.  

Here's an unrelated (to the original topic, anyway) question: has 
there ever been a situation where you've had to "correct" (for lack 
of a better word) your SO (significant other) that caused you quite a 
bit of internal turmoil?  Like, for instance, he continually spells 
your sister's name wrong, or YOUR name wrong (true cases, concerning 
my current SO and an ex-SO respectively)?  What were your solutions?

Jennifer (not Jenifer, nor Jeniffer)