3 ms·

I've travelled to plenty (I used to work for a large multinational and travelled to all parts of the world) and people I interacted with across many disparate c

I've travelled to plenty (I used to work for a large multinational and travelled to all parts of the world) and people I interacted with across many disparate cultures made the effort to pronounce my name as I was introduced (or introduced myself) to them. I also made every effort to pronounce their names as they pronounced them. Accents being what they are, it wasn't always perfect, but they never decided to call me a local translation of "Dave." But again, I think we should call Italy "Italia" because that's how Italians spell and pronounce it. When I ask a local something about Padua and they look at me confused until I ask them about Padova, we should all be making the effort to call it "Padova."

dagw 11y ago
they never decided to call me a local translation of "Dave." I had a German friend in England called "Peter" and everyone always called him the English pronunciation of "Peter" no matter how he introduced himself. Maybe it's different with an English name in a non-english speaking country, since the 'correct' pronunciation is often known thanks to TV and movies.
- themartorana 11y ago
  That would have been considered disrespectful in my company, and to me personally. That said, I spent some time in Germany working with Germans, but we would only call someone "Peter" if he (or heck, she) asked to be directly. I suppose this boils down to identity for me, having had hours to reflect on this conversation now. My name is a huge part of my identity. How it can be changed in any way without my consent is bizarre to me (respect to the untold number of immigrants that had their names changed at Ellis Island and elsewhere on a whim). In any case, yeah, unless he asked to be called Peter, WTF?
  - dagw 11y ago
    That would have been considered disrespectful in my company, and to me personally Me, I quickly realized it was about picking my battles. I could fight every day I lived in England to get people to pronounce it correctly or I could accept a reasonable best effort approximation and move on with my life. I found that most expats/immigrants with strange names took the same approach. These days when I'm in England or North America I've even started to pronounce my own name slightly wrong to speed up the whole process. Hell some people I know even preemptively changed their names to something easier to save everybody the effort. Mispronunciations where (almost) never due to malice and my friends converged on a good pronunciation fairly quickly, and that was good enough for me. Spending a few years of your youth with most people getting you name wrong quickly desensitizes you to such minor details.

dagw 11y ago

they never decided to call me a local translation of "Dave." I had a German friend in England called "Peter" and everyone always called him the English pronunciation of "Peter" no matter how he introduced himself. Maybe it's different with an English name in a non-english speaking country, since the 'correct' pronunciation is often known thanks to TV and movies.

themartorana 11y ago
That would have been considered disrespectful in my company, and to me personally. That said, I spent some time in Germany working with Germans, but we would only call someone "Peter" if he (or heck, she) asked to be directly. I suppose this boils down to identity for me, having had hours to reflect on this conversation now. My name is a huge part of my identity. How it can be changed in any way without my consent is bizarre to me (respect to the untold number of immigrants that had their names changed at Ellis Island and elsewhere on a whim). In any case, yeah, unless he asked to be called Peter, WTF?
- dagw 11y ago
  That would have been considered disrespectful in my company, and to me personally Me, I quickly realized it was about picking my battles. I could fight every day I lived in England to get people to pronounce it correctly or I could accept a reasonable best effort approximation and move on with my life. I found that most expats/immigrants with strange names took the same approach. These days when I'm in England or North America I've even started to pronounce my own name slightly wrong to speed up the whole process. Hell some people I know even preemptively changed their names to something easier to save everybody the effort. Mispronunciations where (almost) never due to malice and my friends converged on a good pronunciation fairly quickly, and that was good enough for me. Spending a few years of your youth with most people getting you name wrong quickly desensitizes you to such minor details.