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Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

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Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#92
It's impossible for an English speaker to pronounce my last name, whether they heard it before or not. Heck, I can't even pronounce it myself without falling back into German speech mode.

But what's more important: it really doesn't matter to me how you pronounce it. Do people care about it that much?

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#93
post #21

Mispronouncing someone's name is understandable. What gets me is people misspelling my name... after they've worked with me for years... and seen my name hundreds of times...

My name is Thomson, and I've set up the following aliases for my gmail (in decreasing order of traffic): thompson, thomas, tom, thom (my dad's name). I get an e-mail at least twice a week.

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#94
post #7

Yeah, I think it's a clever concept, but it seems almost egotistical to say, "Look, I care enough about how you pronounce my last name to embed a link in my email sig " Many people classically mispronounced my name - it's not a big deal, I move on. If we're not going to be having many conversations where you say my last name, I'm not even going to correct you.

I dunno; as somebody who's name gets mispronounced essentially all the time, I'm pretty sensitive about trying to pronounce other people's names properly. If they embed the pronunciation in their email, then a) I don't have to ask, and b) I can practice on my own time with a reference to make sure I have it correct. It's nice of them.

I have a different problem, my name Jensen generally gets said correctly but people looking at the spelling of my name get it wrong (Jenson / Jason) quite frequently.

This is primarily an issue with new contacts / acquaintances which I'm sure looks poorly on both of us, especially when this gets sent to other people on job searches etc.

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A tendency to apply high value to symbols, instead of substance is a property I've noticed in less sophisticated people. This is a wonderful sentence. I recently got married, and I wouldn't trade my wedding ring for ten times the gold value in cash, because I cherish it as a symbol of my commitment to my wife, and a symbol of our love for each other. Does that make me "less sophisticated" than somebody who looks at…

> Does that make me "less sophisticated" than somebody who looks at their wedding ring and says "Gold prices are up from when we got married; let's cash this sucker in and make some profit"? They wouldn't buy a ring in the first place.

That'd dodging the question and you know it. Maybe the ring is a family heirloom passed down for generations. Still not sophisticated? What about the person who's father left them his vintage 1913 archtop guitar, and they don't really play it that often but have fond memories of listening to their dad noodle around and play blues music in the evening?

Is it more reasonable to say that nobody should attach emotional value to any inanimate object, or to say that people have the right to decide by which name they'd like to be referred to, and that as a matter of basic respect you should put some effort in to learning how people want their names to be pronounced?

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#97
Like everything, this will take a bit of time. Recording your name, attaching to your email signature and allowing people to hear it a few times, in their own comfort and on their own time, will help them to get it eventually. Once everyone will have their name recorded, it will raise the issue and get people to make an effort and realize it is important. Now, there is only nothing, so...

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno; as somebody who's name gets mispronounced essentially all the time, I'm pretty sensitive about trying to pronounce other people's names properly. If they embed the pronunciation in their email, then a) I don't have to ask, and b) I can practice on my own time with a reference to make sure I have it correct. It's nice of them.

My name gets mispronounced, too, and I'm fine with it - I actually prefer the incorrectly pronounced version of my name. It has taught me, though, that when someone tells you "you can just call me X", you should not keep asking them how to really pronounce their name. If you're an American, you are not going to be able to fluently pronounce some non-Indo-European names. It's downright rude to quiz people for minutes…

> non-Indo-European names

Are Persian or Polish names easier than Hawaiian or Japanese?

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#100
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His name is probably "Marius". That's about as short as it gets as a name...

It's a great name, but it has three syllables and is uncommon enough for people to wonder if they should pronounce the "s" as he himself demonstrated. There's a reason you know William Gates and William Clinton as Bill Gates and Bill Clinton. Richard Cheney knows short name is so important, he'd rather be called "Dick" rather than his full name, "Richard". Short always wins. Mark isn't bad, by the way. Marius "Mark"…

this is such an incredibly disrespectful thing to do, i'm having trouble determining if you are a deliberate troll or not.

if you do this in real life unsolicited, you're going to have real problems.

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