significant use of any foreign language is not at all the done thing
NickW, I'm not sure you and Bel are as far apart as you (plural!) think you are. I think 'significant use of a foreign language' is reasonably far removed from pronouncing the capital city of a country as its inhabitants pronounce it. I also find it hard to classify French as a foreign language in Quebec. (Sorry, Bel, I am still too lazy to find the accents and spell Montreal / Quebec correctly, although I would pronounce them the French way...)
There are people who only know the 'English' pronunciation and spelling. There are others who only know the 'native'. And there's a whole chunk of us in the middle who know both and (I'd like to think!) use whichever people will understand.
By the bye, we English speakers can't even agree on how to pronounce or spell our own language. It's hardly surprising we have variations with foreign place names. We're not even that good with 'English' place names, which gives rise to a whole new quiz...
All you non-Brits out there, how many of you can give the correct pronunciation of Hawick? Appletreewick?
Non-Americans (these should be easier, due to a bias in my knowledge!), how about Des Moines? Poughkeepsie? Piscataway?
Non-Australians, Taree? Goulburn?
(As an aside for Antipodeans, I've heard people ask the way to 'Bondy Beach'. Obviously where Alan hangs out now he's been let out...)
