Comments on: Swiss Saturday: A Rose by Any Other Name

By: Evil HR Lady

Evil HR Lady — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 07:28:01 +0000

This reminds me of two girls I knew. They were cousins–their dads were brothers. They had the “same” last name. Dubois. Except one family pronounced it Du-boys, and the other Du-bwah.

I’m not sure how the grandparents said it, and why their fathers differentiated, but it just proved that it’s impossible to know how to pronounce a name!

By: Madstuart

Madstuart — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 02:53:47 +0000

Oh, man, the German name mispronunciations.

I did a semester in Hamburg and the entire time, most of the Germans I met mispronounced my name horribly… except for the one who was a boyfriend of one of the people in my program. She pointed out that one of the people who has been there the whole year had exactly the same name, just missing the first letter, and he’d learned how to pronounce her name correctly in the first half of the year so he could damn well learn how to pronounce my name as well.

By: Maginot Line

Maginot Line — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 00:23:39 +0000

My last name is Maginot. Not only do I get people who mispronounce it, some on purpose, those who do know how to pronounce it seem insistent on pointing out what a failure the Maginot Line was (It was not! It was the last part of mainland France to surrender and only did so when the Vichy government ordered them to surrender). Oh, and Freedom Fries?? I wasn’t too happy about that!

By: Wade

Wade — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 21:19:25 +0000

This is the best point I can make on this topic. The Tick’s Susan dialogue.

By: Deana

Deana — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 23:44:00 +0000

Actually, this just reminded me of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California getting criticized by an opponent when running because he could not correctly pronounce the name of the state. If he’s not committing a microaggression against all of California, then no one else who has GENUINE difficulty pronouncing a name is, either.

By: Deana

Deana — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 23:40:54 +0000

Looks like the main website is just a pledge, but no surprise this comes from my neck of the woods – the bay area / silicon valley. I agree with your assessment, Evil HR Lady! Deliberately mispronouncing a name is one thing, but just having genuine difficulty in pronouncing a name (or any word) is not racist or a microaggression. We don’t make fun of immigrants who have accents or have difficulty pronouncing certain words that are different than their native tongue, so why would we criticize anyone else who has genuine difficulty correctly pronouncing a name or any word?

By: Bluey

Bluey — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 21:58:19 +0000

My name is mispronunced all the time. My in-laws friend says it wrong name all time. Close but no cigar ( think like….. Suzanne’s Susan example). Nicest guy in the world. Always gives me big hug when I see him. Doesn’t bother me at all.

No one is misproucning my name with intention to do so. Americans or Foreigners. ( Actually my name is French so they would pronounce it right ! )

For me personally, I have bigger fish to fry.

By: anon

anon — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 19:25:37 +0000

“So, all in all, stop looking for reasons to be offended.”

Please, this!

By: Elizabeth West

Elizabeth West — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 18:49:07 +0000

In reply to Jeanne.

In music school, we had a Chinese student who went by AmericanFirstName Ng. Because we were vocal students, we had no excuse not to try–especially since we all sang in other languages and spent hours studying the International Phonetic alphabet!

She said it was okay if we pronounced it “Ing,” which isn’t correct, but she really appreciated that we gave it a shot.

By: Elizabeth West

Elizabeth West — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 18:41:50 +0000

My last name is three common English words stuck together. The emphasis is slightly different in England where it originated than it is in the US, but the words are pronounced as anyone anywhere who speaks English would say them. No alternative vowels or consonants, nothing unusual. Think Eastsidestreet (I just made that up).

Regardless, people stumble over it ALL THE TIME. Because Sidestreet by itself is also a last name, they often don’t hear the first syllable. This means when they’re looking me up in a database, they don’t search for East–they start with Side. Then they say, “I can’t find you.”

I then have to pronounce my name in a very exaggerated way–“It’s EAST SIDE STREET.”

*ticka ticka ticka* “Oh, there you are!”

Me: *sigh*

I don’t mind if someone who speaks a different first language can’t pronounce it, or if someone has trouble at first. But after one correction, it shouldn’t be that hard!