Looking at a map of Wisconsin, College of Arts & Sciences freshman Sheila Kohler can't help but smile as she points out the names of the various cities and towns. Beloit, Sheboygan and even Milwaukee, all sound so strange to the Plymouth, Minn., native.

"I never know how to say the names of places in Wisconsin," she said.

But Wisconsin Radio Network personality Jackie Johnson has found a solution to the pronunciation problem in her Web site, www.misspronouncer.com. This site allows people to listen — free of charge — to Johnson pronouncing the names of commonly mispronounced Wisconsin places and people, like the northeastern village of Ashwaubenon, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz or, Johnson's personal favorite, Chequamegon National Forest.

Johnson, a Wisconsin native, started the Web site after she accidentally mispronounced the names of places and people on the air. She then decided she wanted to protect people from making the same mistakes.

"(These words) are not going to be changing anytime soon," she said.

According to Greg Iverson, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee foreign language and linguistics professor, a lot of people have a difficult time pronouncing the names of Wisconsin places because many of them are not English-based words.

"The biggest challenge is presented by the fact that these words have a French or Native American origin," he said.

Iverson added that he thought the best way for people to learn how to properly say Wisconsin words was to hear them and then memorize their pronunciation.

Johnson's Web site allows for just that. The site has recordings of Wisconsin's 190 cities, 400 villages and 1,260 towns. It also includes the names of many famous people from Wisconsin. Some of them, like Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), have been recorded pronouncing their own name for the site and Johnson said that she plan to acquire more recordings from state celebrities to bring greater credibility to the Web site.

Johnson said she is already very pleased with the sites' success. She's received an "onslaught of e-mails" thanking her for the site and hopes it continues to grow. Someday, she hopes to make a profit off of it by selling ad space.

"It's really awesome," Johnson said referring to all the positive feedback and attention she has received for her website. "I'm thrilled to see people are using it."