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People who can't seem to pronounce your name.

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ChiTownBuffalo

Either I made up lies about the Boston Bomber or I fell for someone else's crap. Either way, I have absolutely no credibility and you should never pay any attention to anything I say, no matter what the context. Perm me if I claim to be an insider
I have a simple last name. It's "Cho." It rhymes with "go" and its 3 letters wrong.

However, people in the Midwest do not seem to be able to grasp this.

I don't have a problem with people pronounce my name "Chow" or "Choy" or "Chu" is they have never met me. It irks the fuck out of me if they can't seem to pick up on it after I've pronounced it for them or spelled it out.

"Mr. Choy?"

"No, it's Cho. Rhymes with "go."

"Chow?"

"No. Cho."

"It looks like Chow to me."

At that point I wonder if the person is just stupid, or has ingrained racist assumption on how Asian names are pronounced and how they should be spelled.

Then it just keeps going after I spell it out for them.

"It's C-H-O."

"Y? W?"

"No. Just three letters."

"That's it?"

"Yep."

"Are you sure?"

Oddly the 3rd most common misspelling of my name I've come across is "Chl." Maybe its how I speak, but I don't understand how that happens.

/livejournalrant.
 
First or last? People have problems with both. Sometimes they leave off letters or add extra sounds. Always fun.
 
I pity this man:

XLwvv.jpeg
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I've gotten used to people mispronouncing my first name. I blame my mother for spelling a common French name weird
 
I love all you fuckers.
 
My hockey coach. In Dutch, there's a difference in the pronunciation of Robbert (my name) and Robert. After correcting him what seemed to be thousand times, I just gave up. I grew to hate the name Robert.
 
My arabic name has gotten mispronounced all my life, but it is pronounced differently depending on where you go. I've never had as much trouble as OP though.
 
I still am not sure how i should pronounce "Nguyen".
If anyone want to fill me in, i've seen that video of the lady explaining it, but it wasn't very clear.
 
It is difficult for any western european to say my surname "Doczumiński". I had a quite big problem getting a social number to work in the Netherlands, they pronounced it "Tshiminski" and wouldn'y believe that i'm the same person.
 
UrbanRats said:
I still am not sure how i should pronounce "Nguyen".
If anyone want to fill me in, i've seen that video of the lady explaining it, but it wasn't very clear.
Click to expand...

Make a sensual "Nnnn..." sound, then go straight into "win," with no space between. Then try it again, but shorten the "Nnnn" sound so that it's just barely there
 
Not only can some people not say my last name right, when they get it right they just call me by my last name to address me. At least when I was in school. That really annoyed me.
 
Doesn't happen often, but my last name is Fate and somehow people have managed to mispronounce it adding an extra syllable for the e. My sister's first name is Shalene and gets butchered all the time, though.
 
It happens a lot to me when I send emails at work. My first name is Mauro.

"I just got your email, are you Mario?"

It makes me filled with rage. I can't understand how someone can read Mauro and assume it's the same thing as Mario. Every. Single. Time.
 
Whenever customer service people ask for my name on the phone, I immediately begin spelling out my name. I don't even bother correcting people unless I know I'll be dealing with them later at this point.
 
I have a Swedish last name that I've always found easy to spell. However most people seem to have trouble spelling it when I say it out loud, so I've gotten into my mom's habit of just automatically spelling my last name to somebody if they have to write it down.
 
Last name is Dyer.

"Dryer?" "Dwyer?" It's seriously four letters. I've never understood why people always feel the need add in an extra one in there.
 
My last name is Vitale.

The e is not silent.

Dick Vitale (ESPN College Basketball talking head) doesn't know how to pronounce his name.
 
My family is Cuban, some of my aunts and uncles don't speak English and none of my grandparents did. My parents named me Ian, which it took some took some difficulty for my relatives to pronounce. They put the emphasis on the 'a' and draaaag the name out when they say it, but that's fine by me, no more pet names.

A lot of native English speakers here in Flahda are mystified by my name. I've been called "Eye-an", "Ivan", and most baffling, "Ane", like the first syllable of "anal". Yeah, I didn't realize when that teacher had called my name.

My physics teacher in highschool (a Russian) call me by my last name for the whole year, which was cool.
 
A lot of Asians have a tough time with my name. 'Seen'? 'Sane'?

Whats real funny is that they'll sometimes get the 'sh'-sounding part right, but then call me 'Shane'.

Must be ingrained racism.

I dont know OP. Your example sounds really implausible, though. I think you're probably exaggerating.
 
I had to announce names for something and some dude had the name "McLeod". Now I've never seen that name spelled that way so I totally butchered it "Mick-Lee-Ode?"
 
Seda said:
My last name is Vitale.

The e is not silent.

Dick Vitale (ESPN College Basketball talking head) doesn't know how to pronounce his name.
Click to expand...

Or it's pronounced differently. One of my prof's name is Sabine but it's pronounced Sah-been-ah.
 
Not exactly pronunciation but people can't spell my name right. It's not hard. I'm alastair. I usually get every other spelling of the name except mine (there's like, 6).
 
Woolley = Wool-e

I get Wally, Woo-ah-lee and other little similar pronunciations. I don't understand where people keep getting the "a" from, it doesn't even sound the same.
 
Aristion said:
"Wen", If I'm not mistaken.
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commedieu said:
Let me give it a shot.

Nooyen?
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Grakl said:
I always thought it was "Nuwhen".
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Spring-Loaded said:
Make a sensual "Nnnn..." sound, then go straight into "win," with no space between. Then try it again, but shorten the "Nnnn" sound so that it's just barely there
Click to expand...
suzu said:
Sorta like "new-win".
Click to expand...
jgmo870 said:
Win.
Click to expand...

Confusion sinks in again. D:

Seda said:
My last name is Vitale.

The e is not silent.

Dick Vitale (ESPN College Basketball talking head) doesn't know how to pronounce his name.
Click to expand...
Must've been hard in school.
 
The pronounciation of my name was always weird growing up.

Joel would either be "Jo-el" (two syllables) or "Joel" (one syllable).

I always preferred the latter but gave up trying to correct everyone at a certain point.
 
My favorite is when people misspell my name for waiting lists or orders. My name is fairly uncommon but it's only five letters long and pretty easy to spell if you sound it out in your head.

Or at least I thought it was. *chuckles*

I don't get mad though. I save my rage for other areas of my life. Like listening to all my friends brag about not working on a day that I am. :P
 
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