I once saw some great advice saying we should celebrate when someone mispronounces a word: it means they learned it from reading.

It reminded me of a time when my uncle was barely literate and pronounced the word ‘esoteric’ as ‘ee-SOTTER-ick’. I realised what had happened, but didn’t really know how to correct him, then found a way to say the word myself in the flow of the conversation.

He never mispronounced it again, and there was no uppity nephew embarrassing his uncle. In the years since he’s published a number of books, so couldn’t be happier for him.