Very old news, but nonetheless, still worth a post:
In 2000, the Eight Countries Leaders Conference was held in
Okinawa, Japan. When the Japanese premier Yoshiro Mori met American
president Clinton, he greeted him actively in English: How are
you?
Because of Mori's nonstandard pronunciation, he confused the
compound vowel [ou] and simple vowel [ue], that is he
said: Who are
you? instead of "How are you?" Clinton was surprised
hearing that and wondered why Mori asked him such a question. He
then answered humorously: I am
Hillary's husband.
Mori didn't understand what Clinton said. He thought of the words
his teacher told him---after you said: how are you?, the
other part would answered: I am fine. Thank you, and you? Then you
could say: Me too.
So Mori said to Clinton with a full smile: Me too. Clinton was astonished and wondered
how could Mori said he was also Hillary's husband. He stopped
talking to Mori immediately and turned away from the
reporters.
This joke spread all over the world, which stained the image of
premier Mori and imperiled the interests of Japan. We can see
from that joke: it is a must to master standard pronunciation if
you want to speak to others. It is vital to distinguish the
differences between English phonetics and mandarin pinyin, or even
though you have remembered lots of words and your spoken English is
so fluent, the foreigners can't understand you and it is hard to
communicate.
