Here is my modified pronunciation of pupil and student.

[probus]

Pupil /pjuːpl/
Puma /pjuːmə/

Both have same pronunciation in the first syllables.

In all my life I have never heard anybody say pyooma, and I'd be sorely tempted to laugh at anybody who did. In Anerica, the home of the puma, it's pronounced pooma.

All of the teachers here are native speakers of English. It is highly presumptuous of you to lecture us on English pronunciation.

 

[emsr2d2]

"pyooma" is the correct pronunciation in British English. I'll thank you not to laugh at us. The same goes, for example, for a cancerous tumour - not only do we spell it differently from AmE (where it's "tumor") but the first syllable is "tyoo".

 

[jutfrank]

In all my life I have never heard anybody say pyooma, and I'd be sorely tempted to laugh at anybody who did.

I wouldn't blame you for laughing at us, but you might be interested to know it's almost as funny from the other side. When I was about 9 years old, there was a US TV commercial for the sportswear company which included the line Speed of the Poo-ma! pronounced in a strong American accent. This was back at a time when it was quite rare to hear American accents on TV, and my friends and I thought it was equally cool as it was amusing to pronounce the brand of our favourite trainers in such an odd way. We'd run around the school playground repeating the phrase in increasingly exaggerated and dramatic ways.

While we're on the subject, I have to express my total disdain for the British pronunciation of the name of Russian president Vladimir Pyoo-tin. Eugh!