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I love that my name is Andrew. When I am in Mexico, I become Andrés. When I am in France, I become André. And by friends I am sometimes called Anderg or Andross
by andrewmcwatters 4y ago
I love that my name is Andrew. When I am in Mexico, I become Andrés. When I am in France, I become André. And by friends I am sometimes called Anderg or Andross, just for fun!
Much like CogitoCogito here, I feel a special sense of translation when I am elsewhere. I do not feel the need to have others refer to me as how I know me, as their image of me is already not my own. I am reminded by this when I am called a variation of my name, and wish that others could experience this if they so wished.
People should be called what they want to be called, or called whatever if they don't care, like me!
- jwarden 4y agoPart of embracing diversity is accepting that it is hard, sometimes impossible, for other people to pronounce names that are uncommon in their native tongue When I lived in China, nobody could pronounce my name anywhere close to correctly and I didn’t care. I didn’t do much better with theirs despite putting daily effort into my Mandarin pronunciation. They mostly ended up simply adopting common English names when working with their American colleagues. This was a wise approach. I am reminded of the tourist who comes back from Europe talking about “ParEE”, having no idea how bad their pronunciation really is. When speaking English we use English place names. We say “Paris”, or “China” because it is hard or impossible to pronounce these place names the same way natives of those places do. The key is to be respectful and try to make others comfortable, while expecting the same from others.