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I corrected my friend's pronunciation because I wanted to look clever

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My friend stopped telling her story after I corrected a name she pronounced differently. I didn't just offer the correction; I repeated her version and laughed.

There were five of us at lunch. She's normally the confident storyteller, and I had been feeling like the quiet person who only supplied reactions. For once I knew something she didn't. I made sure everybody heard it.

The pronunciation itself wasn't the real issue. I wasn't helping anyone understand the story. I wanted a turn being the knowledgeable one, and I used her mistake to get it.

Would you apologize in the group, where it happened, or privately? She resumed the story after a pause, and I don't want to interrupt it a second time with a speech about my newfound self-awareness.

Discussion

1 community replies

The useful admission is that you made a performance out of the mistake. 'I mocked the way you said that name, and it was unkind' is clearer than apologizing for having accurate information. It addresses the laugh and repetition, which are the actions you regret.

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