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| Pronounce Names Properly!
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| Thursday, April 10, 2008
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 This morning I received a call from an acquaintance that I have not heard from for years. She was someone I met through those mIRC days when I was a preteen and was still crazy about boybands (seriously, the unglamorous point of my life). As I have not contacted her for a very long time, her cell phone number wasn't registered in my phone. So the conversation went like this. Pronunciation is in brackets:Me: Hello?
Her: Hey (SHA-NEYA)!
Me: (annoyed she got my name wrong) erm I'm (SHANE-AH). You are?
Her: (SHA-NEEYA)... you don't remember me?
Me: (Now terribly annoyed she got my name wrong TWICE) No. That's why I asked. So eventually I got her name but I was really frustrated that she got my name wrong again and again throughout the conversation. I don't mean to point her out specifically but too many people out there got my name wrong and it irks me why is this so. My middle name isn't so hard to pronounce is it?
I had a friend, Chloe, who had a similar encounter. Many professors that taught us always seem to mispronounce her name. Her variations are worse than mine. Things like (CH-OH-EE), (CLONG), (CHO-EE) etc etc. She started to think people just can't handle it and changed her name.
I understand if you are meeting me for the first time and you get it wrong its fine but not repeatedly getting my name wrong. I feel like having a 'Pronunciation 101' for people who really don't know how to pronounce "unique" names correctly. Other times, I just wished people just asked how my name is pronounced instead of winging it and getting it WRONG time and time again. It can be a little unprofessional and very annoying.
Oh well. I guess that is what you get when you have a unique name BUT should we be punished for it just because we have it and people have the right to get it wrong?
Do you all have the same problem with unique names?
*SHANE-AH Out (pronounce) @ 12:55pm* |
posted by Jasmine Shanea @ 12:01 PM
 
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| 16 Comments: |
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Preach on!
Most annoying is when people argue about pronouncing my 3 letter, 2 consonant name, the variations too horrible to mention, but shame on your friend mispronouncing your name on purpose, that is tacky and rude.
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Thanks Ada for the support! I guess in the end of the day, forgiveness is there but at that moment I was ready to scream "STOP GETTING MY NAME WRONG!" :p
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Ahh yes. People mispronounce my name all the time! "Julian" or "Jill-yan"... $#@&!!!
And when I correct them, they make it seems like I'm from another planet!
But yeah, if it's for the first time I can and will excuse you... but anything after that...lol... I get mad!
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@Jillian: Oh man... they call you JULIAN!? I'll start smacking people for you. :)
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oh that's not nice. Of all people, your friend. hmmm I guess that's why I keep my name short, just Lex instead of people mispronouncing Alexis, which is way easy but still they do.
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Hey Alexis, I think your name is so pretty.
I have a GUY friend named Alexis too and he gets peeved off when he meets people online and they presume that he was a SHE. So he pretty much gets "Dear Ms Alexis" pretty often. :p
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I'm one of those people who changed my name. And yeah, the people who would argue with me about how my own name was pronounced made me more than a little crazy.
My screen name is even worse. I worked with a guy who consistently mispronounced it for SIX YEARS. Really... I wanted to hurt him.
--Kelly
(Aerten = AIR-teen)
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How about this...I go by L.S. If said fast it sounds like Alice. I know. But I always say it slowly and often tell people it is like "likely story." And still people get it wrong. I had a really annoying charity solicitor on the phone who refused to pay attention. When I got the invoice at least the form does not say Alice. It says "L.F."
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I remember mIRC and IRC, that seems like such a long time ago. :)
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@Aerten: Wow your screen name is very unique. If you didn't tell me how it is pronounced, I would probably have offended you too. I'll remember it now. :)
@L.S: Tell me about those charity solicitors. Really irriating sometimes. Thanks for the share. :p
@Laura: *sigh those were they days ain't it? When the social media is still in a client box and weird computer fonts.
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I'm so used to it now I just let it roll off my back.
And wow, mIRC and IRC. I vaguely remember what that was. It's been soo long.
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Heh I feel the pain. The last word of my dialect name is "Siew", yet people pronounced it "Swee". I have no idea whether they're dyslexic or what, because they've just shifted the W from the end of the word to the 2nd position, and totally screwed it up.
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@Saph: Wished I could be like you and let this whole wrong name thing not bother me but some times it just make you cringe when you hear your name get mangled.
@foxtwo: Haha tell me about it! People also screw up my dialect name too. Really really embarrassed when they do that. *sigh Sometimes when Singaporeans speak English, I just feel like sticking a piece of tape on their mouths.
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I hate that. I've been called Shannon, Sharona, Susan, Sheryl; you name it if it starts with SH I've been called it. Some of those aren't mispronunciations, but annoying nonetheless. The English language isn't nice for learning how to properly pronounce a name either. We try to be safe but inevitably we get it wrong. Sorry, guess we have to LISTEN the FIRST TIME we are corrected.
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To add to my story - long time back I was at SGH for some therapy due to an injury to my ankle. The nurse/recept/whatever lady took my IC to create my appointment card. When I got the appointment card, it says "SWEE" there, instead of "SIEW" like it does on my IC. The kicker is, the lady TOOK MY IC!! *facepalm*
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@Sharon: I can sense your annoyance. I can't believe people can't get your name right. My name I can understand but Sharon is really easy to remember. Is there something wrong with people's ears or have people decided to stop listening?
@foxtwo: Sigh, your story just reminds me of how I'll never trust hospital staff to get names right. When my mom first registered my birth certificate when I was born, they actually got my dialect name written wrongly in Chinese and only when I'm 21, I had to PAY to get it corrected.
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Preach on!
Most annoying is when people argue about pronouncing my 3 letter, 2 consonant name, the variations too horrible to mention, but shame on your friend mispronouncing your name on purpose, that is tacky and rude.