A Pronunciation Problem

One day the black man at Bloomingdale's post office was asking me to take a vitamin pill. I used to say vitamin with a short "i". He was saying vitamin with a long "i" and I could not understand him at all. Then, all of a sudden, I realised what he was saying. "You mean vitamin!" I said, using my own pronunciation.

"Oh, you Indian!" he exclaimed.

[Source: "A Pronunciation Problem" in Sri Chinmoy, My Consulate Years, Agni Press, Jamaica, NY, 1996, p. 25.]