Multiliguists of Lemmy - When speaking Language A and using a word from Language B how do you decide which pronunciation to use?

Cater to the audience. Being understood is more useful than being right.

Pronounce it properly then give the equivalent in whatever language you're talking in. That's what I do.
That’s a great way to put it, though sometimes I run into situations where I know some of my audience will understand language A and not B and some will understand B but not A.
I always end up just freezing; it’s like my brain is rebooting or something.
- There's pretty much always time to explain yourself if someone doesn't understand. You could say it the first way that comes to mind, then pause and say it the second way. It doesn't have to be perfect, you just have to communicate. Sometimes you have to use your hands and feet, and that's OK too.

I attempt to change to the pronunciation of the original language of that word

Whichever way I learned it first.

Generally, if I know there is a common loan word, then I say it in the language I am speaking (burrito is close enough for example), otherwise I try to say it in the native language and native intonation (quesadilla = kesadi-ya). I generally try to see what will be the most understanding.

With people's names I will try to default to their native version, but once I know them for a while I'll get if they seem to prefer the English or imported version. I'll start with O-ka-mu-ra for example with proper Japanese intonation and cadence, but if they like the bouncy American style of pronunciation Oke-a-moo-rah better then I'll use that. A 2nd generation Japanese-American for instance might be more familiar with the latter. Conversely, a name like George/Jorge, I'll say George in other languages but if they like Joーji (Japanese) or Hor-hey (Spanish) better I'll move to that regardless of what language I'm speaking.

Depends on the language being used and who I'm talking to

I’m a native English speaker living in Germany and if I’m speaking German, every word is coming out with a German accent. It makes Germans cringe, but if I switch back and forth, I completely lose my accent. That means that I pronounce, for example, Microsoft while speaking German with a long i, a trilled r, and a voiced s.

The German r isn't trilled, though. Not every "hard" r is "trilled", that's a unique feature of a specific set of languages and regional accents, like Spanish.
Also, as a German I'd frown so hard at someone who pronounces "Microsoft" like that, even most Germans don't speak like that. Can't you at least pronounce it as if it was written "Maikroßoft" (with a German r and a sharp s), i.e. like most Germans do? "ai" and sharp s are common sounds in German.
I feel you on having difficulties switching between accents quickly, though. I definitely run into this issue when I try pronouncing English words with English r, w or all those diphtongs that English tends to use instead of the single vowel that's written down.
- German has three widespread r variants, including a trilled one (which is most common around me, but not standard Hochdeutsch), and even more less widespread ones. If you go to Herborn, you can even find native German speakers with a rhotic r that sounds just like the one I grew up with in the US.
if I’m speaking German, every word is coming out with a German accent.
Speaking German with a German accent? What?
- German has many English loanwords, which most Germans pronounce with an English speaking accent. I pronounce them with a German accent, as in the example given. I also pronounce “Song” in German with voiced s and a k at the end, for another example.

I'm French and get mocked for saying sweatshirt instead of sweetshirt (as French do)... It's a real conundrum.

France is the absolute worst for this. I once spent ten minutes in a bar trying to figure out who 'Kenny West' was... I kept asking my friends if they're sure that's how the name is pronounced.
It was Kanye. He even says his name in most of his own songs...

You use the one of the language you're currently speaking, of course.

Honestly it's mostly unconscious for me, the brain just does it's thing sometimes.

I’m so jealous.
Part of the reason I asked is because I want to get to this point so badly but my brain just freezes whenever I’m unsure of everyone in the audience’s understanding of both languages
\ 😣🫣
- If that's what you're facing, maybe try thinking of it like you're trying to get to know them a little. If you start talking about say, your recent effort to make sambal oelek for use in say noodles, asking if they're familiar with the name, talk about how it has some origin in French cooking from the colonial period, add some info about how you like to use it etc.
  Like if I'm ordering food, I'll always go for the full pronunciation, then maybe follow up with the server or whoever asking if it's the dish with this or that main focus.
  I also love having fun with themed dinner parties with friends and the such, give full presentation on the pronunciation, it's history in different areas that make it slightly different, give everyone a copy of the recipe (minus a few key but subtle ingredients lol) in both the original language and English.
  All in all I say just try to make it a chance to be enjoyed one way or another and it doesn't take long to get your confidence flowing lol. I totally empathize, I used to be absolutely mortified about the same thing, still do sometimes, just less so these days.

I use the language that I think my interlocutor would prefer. If I don't know, then I default to the language of the social context, unless I specifically want to practise a language at that moment. If I want to practise, then I ask first.

Of the language I am using. Trying to fit in correct pronunciation sounds weird.

Fun fact, just this week I realized that "hemendex" is literally "ham and eggs" together when I've seen it written on a menu as "hamandeggs". I am fucking dumb.

But hey, there's also jomaha, jomaso (You're my heart, You're my soul): https://youtu.be/snm_GTD9-Q8?t=25

The slavic lossy compression of English.

It depends.

Let's say I'm trying to ask an acquaintance their phone number so I can add them on WhatsApp or Signal. Honestly it's kind of ridiculous to use the proper pronunciation of Whatsapp im Brazil, so I use the popular way (it's something like "oah-tchi-zap").

Unless I'm actually speaking with someone in their mother language I just default to the Brazilian version of the name. Otherwise I will try and match their pronunciation - it's nice to train and also I think it's polite.

By how well known the word is by the people I speak to. English is usually not an issue. Germans speak english quite well. Languages' Common phrases like yes, no, thank you are also often known. So I pronounce these as a native speaker would.

When ordering food? It's a fine line when I don't speak the language myself. I.E. ordering spanish couisine but not knowing spanish. I try not to butcher the pronunciation, but trying to lean into it would feel pretentious and awkward to me.

Depends on how good I actually am at pronouncing the original version, how different the original version is from the current language and if I assume that my conversation partner is going to understand it. Also, I tend to have trouble with switching accents quickly. On the other hand, figuring out how to correctly butcher a pronounciation isn't that easy if you're not a native speaker of the butchering language.

I'm a native German living in Germany, English is generally fine, i.e. most Germans know English well enough that they aren't going to be confused by a correct English pronounciation and my pronounciation isn't that bad by German standards. Other languages can get dicey, though. TBH I tend to avoid pronouncing words that are neither German nor English and are hard to understand if you don't know much about the language - e.g. "burrito" isn't so different that Germans wouldn't understand the Spanish pronounciation, but many French words are not very obvious if you don't know French well, plus my pronounciation could be bad enough that it would even throw off native French speakers.

If I was in an anglophone country ordering German food, I'd probably pick the German pronounciation, because I'm not that good at guessing how anglophones in a specific area pronounce German words, and who knows how that would even come out if I try that with my German-accented English. But I'd expect that most of the servers don't know any German and have trouble understanding me. I'd probably just say the numbers if it's a numbered menu.

I say burrito the American-English way because it's also a word in English. But if I say "arepa" I say it the way it's pronounced in Spanish.

This trend of pronouncing it the way I first heard extends to dialects, too: Words that I first learned in an Argentine context I tend to pronounce in the Argentine way (eg. the letter elle makes a "zh" or "ĵ" sound) versus the rest of my Spanish which is more (central) Mexican.

I have often irritated or confused acquaintances when using famous quotations or phrases from Latin, which I pronounce in a Classical, rather than Italianate manner (eg. hard Cs and soft Vs).

It's kind hard to write clearly in print about how we pronounce things, huh?

As a funny aside I was serving a restaurant patron the other day who was Spanish-only. The restaurant I wait tables at is Mediterranean cuisine, and I stumbled because I couldn't remember how to say "falafel" in Spanish.
I just stopped in the middle of a sentence for what felt like a minute but was probably only a handful of seconds before I realized the word I wanted was "falafel": It's not an English word originally and I didn't need to translate it at all.
- I was surprised by seeing “ñoqui” on a menu and realizing I actually knew what it was.
It’s kind hard to write clearly in print about how we pronounce things, huh?
English is also kinda especially bad for this. There's always IPA if you want to be correct but really confuse most readers ...
- Instructions unclear: Had a beer, still not great at putting my accent(s) into print.

It depends. "Burrito" is commonly used in English so it would be a bit silly to trill the 'rr'. For words that aren't as common in English it's more likely to be the Spanish pronunciation. Place names generally too.

I'm Chinese-American. Primary language is English, I don't speak Cantonese very well, and I don't really speak Mandarin (but both are based on the same language system so its not that hard to convert from Cantonese). If I were to go to a Chinese restaurant, I'm gonna speak, in this order: Cantonese, then its Mandarin, then English, but most of the staff probably speaks Cantonese. I'm not gonna be like "I want a 燒賣, thank you", like... that sounds so out of place lmfao, just speak the whole thing in the same language.

If pronunciation i would pronounce in the original language the word come from, in the accent of the language i most fluent with.

If I'm talking english and I have to say a word in spanish, I say it as it is.

bu-rri-to

Trilingual. I generally use the accent of the language I'm speaking, or I purposefully pronounce it as horribly as I can because idgaf

I generally go by either what the person I'm speaking to is likely to prefer or whichever is easier to pronounce, assuming I think it won't cause confusion for the listener.

Depends on the person I’m talking to. I adapt based on how they (or how I assume they) pronounce it.

Depends , if I'm speaking with my wife we interchange and speak whatever comes in the moment and understand each other. In other countries we use the native language if we know it.

With friends it depends if everyone in the group can speak the language or not.

I'm not very bilingual but I grew up with English and have spent a few months in Latin America.

I noticed that in English I now say Mexico the Spanish way when I'm with local people, but the English way when I'm visiting friends in the US. I always say it the Spanish way in Spanish, and don't think I use any regional accents.

Not a multilinguist, but I happened to attempt to use the native pronunciation for some words, but otherwise, I don't tend to use the native pronunciation.

Usually like the language of origin unless I'm around people that do not speak fluently or are not looking to learn.

For example, in Chile a lot of people mix English words in their day to day use and pronounce it incorrectly so I pronounce it the same way and go along with it.

I never pronounce words in my own language differently as I think its a missed opportunity on teaching someone a little bit. Which is also a thing I appreciate other people do to me as well.

Depends who I am talking with. I use the pronunciation of my interlocutors language even if it sounds wrong in it's original language. Mainly because it's fun to speak like a weird movie accent.

So if I am with a Mexican I will say "Burrito."

And if I am with an English speaker I will say "Beau- rhee -toe!"

You pronounce the word correctly for whatever language the word is from. That’s the objectively correct way. Is this a serious question?

Do you speak multiple languages?
- Yes, I speak English and Spanish
It's not objectively correct.
If you do this between English and Japanese, Japanese people will not understand the way you pronounced the English word.
If you ask a Japanese person if they own a "computer" they will not understand. You have to call it a "con-puuu-ta" or even "pa-so-con" which is personal computer.
McDonald's... Nope. "ma ku do nal do" or even just "makku" depending on the region.
- If you ask a Japanese person if they own a "computer" they will not understand. You have to call it a "con-puuu-ta" or even "pa-so-con" which is personal computer.
  In Thai it’s just ‘com’.
  If you’re ready for the bill at a restaurant it’s ’check bin’ which for some reason is ‘check’ and ‘bill’ combined. When I first learned this people were confused why I didn’t already know it, “but it’s English?!”
There are times in which pronouncing the wrong way can save you a lot of hassle.
In many poor countries speaking proper English is a dead giveaway that you have money, so you can obviously see why that is undesirable. Even when that is not the case English is so deep in every other language that people use English words as they see fit without knowing the language at all, so one has to pronounce it like they do for them to understand.
Last case is to "avoid correcting someone" because one does not want to make the other person feel bad, or simply want to avoid the "how is it pronounced" situation.
Do you pronounce borrowed French words the way they should be correctly pronounced in everyday settings?
Like this video: https://youtu.be/fKGoVefhtMQ
- If I can. My sentiments do not apply to “loan words”. Those are a different category in my opinion. And there are some French words I struggle with, tbh.
- I don’t even know how coupé is pronounced in French…
  I have a guess but those are usually way off when it comes to French pronunciations
Definitely serious. Loanwords fall all across the spectrum regarding how much they’re integrated from their source language into the “local” language and most folks don’t know or care about word etymologies enough to even consider it. If you’re not native there’s a good chance you’re mispronouncing loanwords even when you’re trying to use their native pronunciation.
- Loanwords are a different story. I would argue those are part of both languages at that point. Burrito is an English word and a Spanish word. As I see it, anyway.