The British city of Leicester became known around the world in 2016, as football fans celebrated their David against Goliath feat in winning the English Premier League. For the non-fans, as they joined the hubbub of the afterglow, they belatedly learnt the city is properly pronounced as “Les-ter”. Hence, through Leicester’s triumph, even if we didn’t come to appreciate the unpredictability of football, we at least can learn to appreciate the unpredictability of English place names.

Many of you will now promise yourself to never visit Leicester and avoid the trouble, given its fickle name; but as an English speaker, we have a responsibility to learn its vocabulary, and city names are, indisputably, vocabulary. Just imagine a foreign Cantonese learner butchering their pronunciation of our city. Or they pointed at Hainan Island on a map and claimed that it was Hong Kong. It doesn’t feel nice, does it? So as global citizens, we really ought to establish some bits of knowledge of our global neighbours.

Having understood the necessity to learn the pronunciation of places, what’s one way to do it then? Needless to say, the most direct way of course, ask, and listen to the answer. Prick up your ears when you hear a new city name mentioned. This could happen through interacting with people from that area, media like news or TV shows, or if one is dedicated enough, via the internet. Just remember there may be more than one way to pronounce a word, depending on accent, so be mindful but  not obsessed. Mistakes are inevitable, but if you are humble and sincere, most people would be more than willing to teach you.

No one can learn every city name in a day, but we could start with ones in England or the US, given their tendency to be pronounced in English. This could be a rather fun exercise too, what with learning peculiar names and spotting similarities between locations. For example, you’ll notice lots of “-ham”s and “-ville”s at the end of city names; discovering the reason behind will present you with quirky cultural knowledge on the origins of elements of the English language. 

Correct pronunciation of place names is one of the ultimate signs of ‘insiderness’, it shows you to be an open minded person of the world. The next time someone tells you where they are from, you should listen not just out of common politeness but because it is a learning opportunity. Indeed, i-Learner students will have this experience in droves on our UK Study Tours 2025!