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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

#121

Post by kijin »

dllthomas wrote: post #115
kijin wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general, sloppy pronunciation is more common in countries where most people have little to no contact with anyone who speaks a different language. In order to learn that your vowels are not the only vowels that exist, you need to encounter people who use different vowels, and this needs to start at a very young age when your brain can still pick up the difference. I recently talked to an Asian man who couldn't hea…

Not just "a different language" but "the relevant language (or something close enough to have the same phonemes)".

Any language is better than none. It's much easier for someone who is familiar with two languages to learn the basics of a third language, than it is for someone who has only ever spoken one language to learn the basics of a second language (his first foreign language).

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#122

Post by dllthomas »

kijin wrote: post #121
dllthomas wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just "a different language" but "the relevant language (or something close enough to have the same phonemes)".

Any language is better than none. It's much easier for someone who is familiar with two languages to learn the basics of a third language, than it is for someone who has only ever spoken one language to learn the basics of a second language (his first foreign language).

Possibly. I just know that learning Polish, it is being hard for me to distinguish sounds despite speaking various amounts of Spanish, Japanese, German, Hebrew, and Bahasa Indonesia at various points in my life.

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#123

Post by nailer »

Roedou wrote: post #78
danoprey wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm British and in the US I have to deliberately say "Daaayn" so as not to be called Don.

I'm "Rob", and also British. In the US I have to deliberately say "Rahb" so as not to be called Rub, Roob or Robe.

I'm Australian, and live in the UK, my name is Mike, and here I tell people my name is 'Maike' they don't think it's Mark.

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#125

Post by eru »

taejo wrote: post #98
pavel_lishin wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

German names are hard enough for monolingual English speakers.

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#126

Post by spc476 »

xienze wrote: 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...

What gets me is when someone misspells my name in email. When my name, spelled correctly, is sitting there in the To: header.

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#127

Post by ward »

eru wrote: post #125
taejo wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> non-Indo-European names Are Persian or Polish names easier than Hawaiian or Japanese?

German names are hard enough for monolingual English speakers.

Yet to encounter a monolingual English speaker to be able to pronounce my first name "Ward" (Dutch speaking Belgian). Only one I know of was someone who had spent several years in Paris (so he knew French and wasn't actually in the monolingual category anymore).

I recorded this one several years ago: http://wardje.eu/dll/ward.wav

Let's not even get started on my last name...

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#128

Post by stevekemp »

johngalt wrote: post #34

Honestly this seems really pretentious. My last name is almost impossible. Even people who know me tend to just abbreviate it. Whenever I meet someone new who stumbles over my name. I just smile and say 'Don't worry about it, I said it wrong the first time too.' Then give the correct pronunciation. It's a good way to break the ice. Conversely sending someone a link on how to correctly pronounce your name just screams…

My wife changed her name on marriage at least partially because her surname (Finnish) is hard to pronounce for random people here in the UK.

(She's a doctor so she'd has to introduce herself with it on a constant basis to patients - "Hello I'm Dr. Xxxx" - Now she has a surname that is easy to pronounce and a forename people often get wrong.)

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#129

Post by skalla »

pacaro wrote: post #112
Roedou wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm "Rob", and also British. In the US I have to deliberately say "Rahb" so as not to be called Rub, Roob or Robe.

Just to extend the thread, another Brit in the US, "Paul" gets turned into "Pole", "Poll", "Bull" etc.

My friend's name is Roy, his chinese boss calls him Loy

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#130

Post by jules »

xienze wrote: 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...

Americans usually can't pronounce my name when they read it, they can't spell my name when they hear it, and they predict the opposite gender. Interestingly, Brits, even though they speak the same language, usually get everything right.
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