The producer appeared behind the recording studio window and grinned and waved to me like an old friend. And after I had read out a little test piece, he said： "That's fine, wonderful, your voice is perfect. lovely, gorgeous. "Then I read a longer passage in English about the delights of touring in Britain, and another about the delights of visiting London, and both were ‘fantastic’ and ‘just right’, and I began to consider a career in radio.
To be frank.I was fairly confident in spite of lack of experience. Across the room in the Hamburg news agency where we both work, a colleague named Peter Turner had called to me,“I say, Mike, a chap on the phone here wants someone to do a recording in English, and I'm booked up. Would you read something to him in English as a sort of test?”I did, and they said，“Perfect, lovely, gorgeous etc.,would I come round?”
It was after reading the passage in English in the studio that they noticed my vowel pronunciations were not altogether King's English, or even Prince. Philip's； there was a larger silence than usual, then the voice said,“Fine, lovely...but you said the word ‘castle’ with a short ‘a’. Could we have the passage again please, but this time say ‘carsele’。"This was easy. But then he noticed other differences in my pronunciation.
“It's my northern English accent”.I said,angry because I had to apologise for it.
“Oh, I see...but Mr.Jamieson, we'll have to get it right, I'm afraid. The recording is for teaching English to German school children, and it must be spoken in the way it is taught in German schools."
I read the passage again...，and again..., and again. But of course you cannot change the pronunciation of a lifetime in an hour. The studio men became desperate and underlined the offending vowels, so that I'd remember them. Few, really. But because I had to concentrate on them, I made a lot of mistakes in my reading. Everyone got somewhat irritable, so we all went out for a beer.
Broadcasting did not make Mike nervous ______.