Belarus

This morning I helped elementary kids learn geography. One of my college memories flashed into my mind, I'll share it first then go back to the "funny" of today :-).

Old Main, Logan UT

When I was at USU , there was a war happening in Kosovo (Feb 1998 - Jun 1999). I know

  war is no laughing matter, but you see, I was in college. It was funnier for my friend Jenni and I to laugh about mispronouncing Kosovo than to consider the real implications of what we were laughing. 

She would jokingly walk up to me and say (purposely mispronouncing Kosovo, as, "koh-SOV-oh"), "Oh, did you hear about the war in Kosovo? 

We would laugh and laugh at our own ridiculousness.

Fast forward to today. While testing the elementary kids, one of the countries, whose location they were learning was "Belarus". Well, I spent an hour and a half pronouncing it as, "Buh-LAIR-us". My daughter was one of the last groups to be tested and she corrected me saying, "Mom, it is supposed to be "Bell-a-roos", the pronunciation guide is on the back."