to think this is really quite racist?

[JosieRosie]

I am an NHS Early Years professional and (when not out and about visiting my million settings!) work in an office with 5 others. I work in East London and our caseload includes children whose parents come from all four corners of the globe and obviously lots and lots of them have non-White British names.

There are regular conversations between my colleagues along these lines -
A: Oh, I took a phone message for you today
B: Oh yes?
A: Yeah, it was from parent of (half-hearted non-attempt to pronounce child's name)
A&B: (much laughter of the 'aren't these names daft' variety )

AIBU to find it outrageous that they find a non-White British name absolutely hilarious? Racist? Extremely childish and/or unprofessional?

ah. yes I made that on up

OMG, are we to assume that all quirks and individuality are to bred out of our officials. Would we want it to be?

No! Live your lives civil servant individuals. Find fun in what you do and where you will.

However, you must never, never allow your sense of fun to make a difference (positive or negative).

Live, enjoy your work and do it to the best of your ability. You need not be blind when seeing things, but you must be equal in your allocation of services.

I do not expect (or want) you to be perfect, but I pay you to be professional.

Garcia10 - OK I have to ask - what is hilarious about the name 'Farideh'??

Don't get it ?????

YANNNNNNNBU!

It is as ignorant as hell. I have encountered such behaviour in the NHS sadly. You should at least try to pronounce someone's name correctly.

I've met parents who have actually made up a name for their child. But they're British, so their child's name gets pronounced correctly, someone from Lithuania has no chance.

As for homophobia, it's sadly rampant. A colleague described Justin (of Justin and Colin) as a puff, to which my response was "What?! It's 2010, You can't say things like that anymore".

Someone will probably say I'm dull and PC, but I do not care.

No, you are not dull or PC, you rightfully object to nastiness. That is not the same as finding humour in the way a name is written down. I do.

I also pronounce names as I hear them, indeed I write them as they are spelt with the phonetic spelling on a post-it attached.

It doesn't mean that I have to deny to myself that I find somethings funny. Does it? Humour does not mean nasty, or distainful.

But laughing is so often interpreted as hostile. I once had German lessons with a private tutor, and came across the word 'Auspuff' meaning 'exhaust' (on a car). I found this hilarious, but the tutor was offended - she could see nothing funny in it (being German herself). Obviously I did not mean to be hostile.

The reason I found it funny was that its literal translation would be out-puff.

Berry, if you meant to cause offence by your laughter, you were wrong. If not, then you weren't. We cannot always pre-empt other's thoughts. We should not, otherwise we risk eliminating our personality and humanity. As I have said, as long as it does not effect the final decision and there is no malice intended: What does it matter?

i find it rude rather than racist.

i think it is rude when people don't even try to pronounce unusual names.

i remember the days when i was young, when the asian community used to give themselves english names. i always thought it was such a shame

There is a difference between those who deliberately try to belittle you by mis-pronouncing your name and those who do it because they do not know the correct pronouniation.

I speak as someone whose name was much mispronounced when I lived in London.

just wondering from all the YANBU
did you laugh when you heard the name "brooklyn Beckham"
I'm not saying it was wrong to but plenty of people had a giggle at that name the same way they did at Mel B's kid (phoenix marie or something)
Nothing racist in it, they just thought it was a bit of a daft name

I've taught several children with ludicrous names. The one I remember most was a child named Chanel. Not a problem, except on her birth certificate it was spelled CHANNEL.

Garcia10 Why is Farideh funny?

I think YABU and are seriously over-thinking it.

No doubt your colleague was just having a little fun - god knows we all need it - and not necessarily at the expense of the name per se, just at her inability to say it.

And even if she were laughing at the name - so what? Some names ARE funny, and it doesn't follow that she would treat the holder of the name with anything less than dignity and respect when dealing with them face to face.

And I have a non British, quite frankly silly name myself.

And what about poor little Sunday Roast eh? Everyone takes the piss out of her.

YANBU and YABU, some names are unfortunate either through language changes or just plain stupidity on the part of the parents. Sometimes this is funny, but I am not sure I would joke about it in a professional setting.

YANBU, but I used to work in an organisation where I dealt with a lot of people from all different nationalities but sometimes it was impossible to take people's names correctly over the phone as their english was so bad that I couldn't event understand what they were saying over the phone, I had to get them to email in - or add them to the database with my best guess (which sometimes I'm sure was completely wrong) Made me very :( but I don't know what else I could have done! If anyone could enlighten me that would be great.

It is extremely unprofessional and I think it should be brought up to your supervisor/boss. Perhaps they need some sensitivity training in order to understand what is and is not appropriate behaviour in the office. I mean what would happen if someone outside of your immediate group walked into the office and witnessed that behaviour?

'I mean what would happen if someone outside of your immediate group walked into the office and witnessed that behaviour?'

Sadly they would probably join in. It is classic group behaviour. I think that one individual has started this off and the others feel that they have to join in. It has now become a habit and they do it all the time. I think that most of the people are just followers, but that for a minority of them the underlying intent is anti foreign names.

I'm sorry I should have been more clear, I meant someone outside the office entirely. What if someone had come in to get information or to apply for a position?

I used to work for the DA's office in the states and all information is confidential and if anyone had come in from outside and heard us talking about a client (nevermind making fun of them) we would have been severely reprimanded.

And quite frankly how low is it to make fun of a child?

I had an incident today in a chemist over DD's name. The assistant appears to have a problem with DD's name - it's the second time I've had this issue with her. DD's name is common, but not here in NZ.

I can't decide if this woman is just a bitch, or if she is being racist. But I really wish I'd tackled her on it. It's bothered me all day. I feel like she has been really disrespectful.

She may be a bit of both. Often people like this disrespect others to make themselves feel superior.

Why don't you just say something?

As for homophobia, it's sadly rampant. A colleague described Justin (of Justin and Colin) as a puff, to which my response was "What?! It's 2010, You can't say things like that anymore".

GothAnne, I like your response! You made your point very clearly. If someone's going to be so rude and ignorant as to share their horrendous views like that, they deserve to be called out on it.

Again, to clarify, the names that are being laughed at are not remotely funny in themselves. I appreciate not everyone can pronounce every name correctly every time, but my colleagues just cannot be arsed to make a reasonable attempt at it. I agree with previous posters - it's downright RUDE if nothing else

How old are these colleagues? My guess is in their twenties? They sound immature and group followers, and some sound nasty.

claig, one is 25, one is 47, one is 65 I guess wisdom doesn't always come with age ........