Many Vietnamese, both young and old, and especially those more fluent in English, in an effort to assimilate themselves in American life, have deliberately pronounced Vietnamese words incorrectly while teaching their American friends how to say Viet words (using an American accent no less!) This is because of the following reasons: 1) it’s easier for Americans to learn, 2) it takes less time to teach (instead of repeating 20 times and still not getting it,) and 3) it doesn’t make them sound foreign. As many can attest, not sounding foreign in the U.S. is the way to get accepted.

This seemingly innocent practice has actually caused lots of misunderstanding and confusion about how Vietnamese words are pronounced, and you guessed it, pho included. It’s quite bad to the point that some of these Vietnamese even avoid speaking Vietnamese in the presence of Americans. I’m sure you have experienced similar situations.