Note to self

[minoanmiss]

inspired in part by #1 at this and by every patient with a weird ass name who only pronounces the vowels and won't spell it (and you who know my full first name know where I'm coming from -- I have quite the weird ass name), I want to write about how people don't think of how others don't have the same information they do.

Sometime when the phones aren't wringing.

Comments

[bikergeek]

Your html is b0rk3n.

[minoanmiss]

fix't

[ororo]

When I interview, I see names before I talk to humans. The first question out of my mouth is, "Would you please say your name so I know how to pronounce it?"

My first name is Anglo and boring. For my surname, which only has 5 letters, I always say, "My last name is Ex, spelled E as in echo, X as in X-Ray." I can't expect people to know how to pronounce a Polish name that belongs to maybe 6 people out of a million.

[cmcmck]

My middle name is unusual and most people spell it wrongly!

[acelightning73]

I"m not particularly strong or intimidating, but I have occasionally asked a woman in a public setting if she'd feel safer if someone walked her to her car, and I offer to do so. Sometimes if someone is with you, it helps you feel less vulnerable, and there's someone else to scream for help if necessary.

After 9/11, when everybody believe any random Muslim must be a murderous terrorist, I walked Muslim neighbors to their mosque so they'd feel less open to attack by random bigots. "Leave this woman alone. She's basically going to church on a holy day, and she's not hurting anybody." I'm not particularly pro-Islamic, but I still believe in the Constitution's guarantee of freedom from religious bigotry. And I was just being a good neighbor. (There are plenty of mosques scattered throughout Suburbia, and I'm glad, because it's another facet of diversity. And don't get me started on why are these idiots so dead set on stamping out any form of equality?)

[redbird]

I can't imagine someone pronouncing only the vowels in my last name, although the frequently drop one of the consonants, usually the same one, from the total of six.

[minoanmiss]

Oh I could rant about consonantal ambiguity, especially linguistically related ones like b, p, d and t. Aughghghghghghhghghhghgghhghgh

[sovay]

every patient with a weird ass name who only pronounces the vowels and won't spell it

I was just this evening spelling my name on the phone because it does not come out correctly at the other end if I don't. Good grief.

[elrhiarhodan]

I have a weird-ass name, my sisters do too. We are all proud of them. They aren't particularly ethnic, although mine can be. But that's not really the problem with it when talking to people - usually doctor's offices and call centers. It's the people who don't listen and think it's another name altogether.

Growing up, my grandmother, who was born in the Russian Pale (now Poland), emigrated when she was three, spoke only Polish and Yiddish until she was 7, but had the crispest, most un-accented English you ever heard, despite growing up and going to public school in Brooklyn. She would always spell out her last name - "F- as in Frank, A, B-as in Boy, E, R-as in Robert".

So I learned early on to do the same, since my name is one consonant off from what had been the most popular girl's name of the 1970s. The first two letters, then "T-as in Thomas". You'd be surprised how many idiots ask"T as in what?"

"Honey, if you have to as T as in what, you don't need to know."