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Now this is... talk about not being able to pronounce things, I'm in real trouble with this next one, because the name of the band... well it's spelt K-U-K-L. Now how would you pronounce that? I mean given that it's some kind of nordic language that you're not entirely familiar with. Well I checked around a bit, with people who know the band and they said, well, it's pronounced 'Curcle'. So I said 'Curcle', I mean that seems, you know, feasible... daft, but feasible... so K-U-K-L, Curcle, so I went ahead and that's what I said when I did a radio programme featuring this domestically, and a member of the band phoned up and said 'No, it's not Curcle at all, it's...' he didn't say it like this at all but he said '... it's pronounced Krchk'. And I said, well how can it be pronounced Krchk, I said, cause there's no 'R' in it... there's an 'L'... and the 'L' is at the end, you know, all that kind of thing. Anyway, he says it's Krchk, so this is Krchk, and frankly the title of the piece I have no intention at all of trying to pronounce, it's spelt S-O-N-G-U-L-L and it's almost certainly pronounced 'Lester'. (plays the record) That's Kukl, pronounced Krchk and this is John Peel's Music, pronounced 'Excuse me, but isn't that my ladder?'

John Peel#39

MusicHumorRadioMistakesLanguage

About this quote

What does it mean?
Peel describes the difficulty of pronouncing a band name and the frustration when his attempt is corrected.
In plain terms
I tried to pronounce this band name but the band told me I was wrong.
What can you take from it?
Even checking facts doesn't guarantee getting names right.

Where it applies

  • reading names
  • dealing with errors

Putting it to work

  • try anyway
  • accept correction

Questions to consider

  • How do you handle mistakes?
  • Who decides how names are said?

Another view

The band's preferred pronunciation itself unusual for English speakers.

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