How to pronounce “locale”?

Solution 1:

Oxford Dictionaries lists locale as /ləʊˈkɑːl/. You can click on the recording there. It sounds like "low karl", which is presumably the standard British pronunciation. That's how I pronounce it as a speaker of Australian English, which typically follows British pronunciation.

The American pronunciation of /loʊˈkæl/ is closer to the French pronunciation of /lɔkal/. That is, it's like "low cal" as in "low cal(orie) yogurt".

Solution 2:

There is a tendancy for English speakers to pronounce foreign loan-words with unusual vowel or consonant sounds, in order to emphasis the exotic origin.

So many people will pronounce locale as "lo-KAAL", when lo-KAL" is arguably more correct as being closer to the original French.

My personal perception is that American English speakers make this error with French loanwords more often than British English speakers, while the opposite is true with Spanish, though this is may be confirmation bias on my part.