"Olives" Or "All Leaves"

English and Japanese are quite different languages from each other. Particularly, the English pronunciation is one of the most challenging problems for Japanese native speakers/for native speakers of Japanese.

　　When I read a blog on the Internet, I remembered a story about the communication failure [1] a communiation mishap due to bad pronunciation [2]          I remembered a story about a communication mishap that was a result of poor pronunciation/a communication problem that occurred because.... One of my ex-classmates/former classmates at from an English school shared this story:


　　Here is the story: [3]

During his journey in to the US, he dropped into a Subway's outlet. He wanted to buy a sandwich filled with vegetables. That This was because he had gotten/because he was/because he had grown tired of a meat-oriented diet at that the time.

　　 When we place an order at Subway, we can choose from various types of bread, veggies and sauces. We can ask to arrange a sandwich to taste request that a sandwich be prepared to suit our taste, for example, we can place an order as order (and specify) "some more tomatoes and without onions."

　　 He placed an order like this (of this sort) and added/and specified; "without olives."
　　 Though, However/Except, his pronunciation of "olives" was not proper improper/incorrect/off. He should have said as "ɑ́liv", but he said "o-li-bu" instead, like the pronunciation as he usually says as he would pronounce it in Japanese, オリーブ in Japanese. The shop clerk, astonished, asked him in astonishment, "Don't you want any vegetables?" That was because the clerk since he [or she] misheard his order as [4]"without all leaves."


　　 I heard that he was (indeed/finally) able to get a sandwich with salad in the end. And I thought at the time,  that "I might be next" at that time. Ah, English pronunciation (sure) is difficult.

[1]  A 'communication failure' refers to a disruption of communication in the technical sense. For example, an airplane experiences communication failure with an airport during a blizzard and crashes. A 'Communication failure' suggests something very serious and/or dangerous.

[2] this sentence conveys the following message; I remembered a story due to bad pronunciation - in other words, due to bad pronunciation you remembered a story.

[3] This is unnecessary - if you can remove it and still keep the meaning, there's no point in writing it. It's essentially a throw-away phrase. You can modify the preceding sentence with a colon, it's that simple.

[4] Usually, one mishears x as y. 'to mishear something as' sounds awkward. It's much better to simply go with 'heard' here. 'She heard him order 'x'', or 'she mistook his order for', or 'she misinterpreted his order as'