Limiting online contacts is a personal choice

Dear Annie: My direct manager recently deleted me on the networking website Linkedin. I have repeatedly asked him, in person and through email, why he deleted me, but I receive nothing but vague responses from him. Should I be concerned about my position at the company? Am I at risk of being fired?

Dear Linked Out: Everyone has different comfort levels with whom they’d like to connect with online. It doesn’t mean your job is in jeopardy. But if you keep pestering him about it, you might fulfil your own prophecy.

Dear Annie: I wanted to say that your response to “Wondering in Anywhere, USA” — the person who was wondering whether to correct a friend’s word mispronunciations — was spot on. It’s best to let those mispronunciations slide. Being hard-of-hearing and having a speech impediment myself, I’ll fumble a word here and there and, unless I specifically ask for the correct pronunciation, I expect people to know better than to call it out, as long as they understand what I meant.

I went through 12 years of speech therapy, and I’m pretty well understood 99 per cent of the time. When in doubt, don’t sweat it.

Dear Gabe: I appreciate and agree with your perspective. The following is a complementary take on the same issue.

Dear Annie: I just read the letter and your reply to “Wondering” about correcting mispronounced words. While it’s possible that these people had a speech impairment, it’s also quite possible that they don’t know how to pronounce the words. Having taught English to speakers of other languages for over 20 years, I have plenty of experience with people not knowing how to pronounce words. In my case, my students are often lacking confidence as well as English skills, so I find it important not to further damage that confidence. My strategy is not to call attention to their mistake, but rather to matter-of-factly form a question or response that includes the word, pronounced correctly, of course. In that way, they’re able to hear the correct pronunciation without feeling they’ve been “corrected.”

This is even more important in a group setting, as focusing on the mistake would cause further embarrassment in front of others. They may continue to mispronounce the word, but at least they’ve heard it said correctly, and hopefully, they’ll eventually get it right.

Dear Proud Teacher: Thanks for your expertise and for helping so many students.

Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators. com. To find out more about Annie Lane and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at creators.com.