24 Apr 15 Sud ?
Driving into Montreal (where I have recently moved) I was using, as I generally do when driving, Google Maps. Once you enter Quebec, naturally, many of the street names are in French. Instead of stating the names with French pronunciation, Google Maps opts to go with a pronunciation of an anglophone unaware of the existence of foreign languages. So when it was time to turn onto 15 Sud I was told to turn onto 15 Sud pronounced like the soap bubbles you get while washing clothes. Instead of soo-d, as it would be pronounced in French. I see both pros and cons to this approach. The pro, I guess, is that if you were, in fact, an anglophone unaware of the existence of foreign languages it would be confusing to be told to turn onto 15 “soo-d” when the sign clearly says “sud”. The con is that it is confusing when in your mind your are giving things their language-correct pronunciation and then you hear something that sounds quite unlike that. It is clearly not at the top of the confusion mountain, but as your attention is often on other things while driving (e.g. driving), it can throw you off a bit when you are in an unfamiliar place.
Google does offer the option to change the navigation language, but that’s not what I am looking for. I want to navigate in English with the road names spoken as a local would speak them. This would also be helpful for future conversations with locals. If I tell someone in Montreal to take the 15 “sud” I’m sure they would be confused, at least for a moment, before piecing it together. I also saw a funny post about how in Greece, at least in 2018, Google maps (in English) would just spell out the letters of the name of the street (e.g. “epsilon, beta, phi, etc…).