Do you change your accent mid-sentence to pronounce foreign names?

[ShapelyBingoWing]

Not a current situation, but something that's played on my mind many times since knowing this person.

I used to have a colleague called Joao, a Portuguese fellow. We didn't work particularly closely together but he was known for getting very annoyed when those further down the pecking order than him didn't say his name the Portuguese way. He did seem happy for his superiors to call him "Jow".

I can't think of anyone else I've ever come across insisting that their name is pronounced their native way. In fact, nearly everyone I know whose name doesn't gel well with the English accent has always introduced themselves and then said "call me X" (X being a version of their name that an English accent can easily manage).

I don't really know what the reasonable expectation is in this situation. It must be frustrating when people always say your name wrong but equally I've seen how difficult people seem to find a mid sentence accent change...most people simply tried to avoid ever actually addressing him by name!

I think it's very twatty to expect people to adopt the accent of your own home tongue when they pronounce your name. How many of us expect that of our own names when we go to other countries?

My sister in law is Japanese (speaks very little English) and finds it impossible to pronounce my dd's name as there is no 'L' sound in Japanese. Should I harangue her about it? Obviously that would make me a very rude loon.

My other sister in law is French. If she broke off from her French accent mid sentence to say my name in RP it would be completely surreal. It would sound like she was taking the piss, if I nothing else.

I find it hard to believe that any mature adult would take offence at their name not being pronounced in a 100pc authentic way, in the accent of another language.

I lived in the US for years and used to listen to how the state of Maryland was pronounced. Like Mar -ur -land and then listen to all the British TV correspondents pronouncing it Mary-land. I always thought that was rude. Did they not mix with locals!!

This thread makes it abundantly clear why so many British people are traditionally considered terrible at learning other languages.

As a Californian, I cringe at BBC presenters saying "Las Angeleeze".

I'm watching Fake or Fortune now on BBC2 and Fiona Bruce is, to me, pronouncing Gauguin correctly but in her own accent. Which seems completely OK to me. And she's fluent in French.

How do y'all pronounce Van Gogh?

I think I'd just try my best to say someone's name in as similar way as they say it themselves.
Because to be honest, I can't do every accent / language in the world ..... and, in the nicest possible way, I would struggle to distinguish my Polish accent from many other Eastern European ones, and my Venezuelan from my Colombian.

Speaking French, I'd probably pronounce Catherine as "cat-reen" if that's how she introduced herself, rather the "cath-eh-rin". But probably not with seventeen Eeeeeeeeeees.

Using the chorizo example .... using a "th" rather than "zz" sound is just saying the word correctly, I'd have said. It's not an English word, so I'd go with the Spanish pronunciation. But not necessarily with a full-on Manuel-the-waiter accent.
Obviously, if there was a dog breed or type of fence we Brits called "chorizo", then I'd pronounce it with the "zz" when talking about my dog / new fence!

And .... throw in the fact that there's not just one "French" accent ..... there's as many variations as we have of English accents 😳

This thread makes it abundantly clear why so many British people are traditionally considered terrible at learning other languages.

Though I agree that we are considered quite poor with languages (with reason), as many have pointed out, this works the other way too. I don't have any expectation that people with different accents to mine will adopt my accent to say my name. And nobody ever has. I'd find it really odd if someone with a thick French accent suddenly adopted a British hard J when saying my name.

I say cho-REE-so, Latin American pronunciation.

Do you mean people who put on an accent to pronounce foreign words? A bit like the people mentioned in this video? Not those with Foreign Accent Syndrome, of course.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkxm5UTe-Xg

I'd try to give it a go for someone's name but wouldn't if I was saying I'm off to Barcelona

I recall when I was a school child on workmplacement this woman phoned and said her name was Mrs 'Sinj'n' - I asked her at least three times to say it again so I could spell it, in the end she said St John ..... first is ever heard of that clearly a child who didn't attend a posh school lol just thought I'd share that as it still makes me hoot and cringe a bit in many ways

I get what you mean op and doubt everyone saying they would change accent actually would. Most would probably do as you and your colleagues did and say name with correct sound of letters but in the way these would be said usually without correct accent. Im sure as you've suggested folk don't start putting on scouse/scotts/Welsh accents when addressing others which would be the equivalent. Out of interest how did he pronounce others names? Was it always exactly as they said it themselves?

I have a friend Joel who's got Mexican/Portuguese heritage. Strictly speaking, his name would be pronounced ho-ELLE, with the emphasis on the second syllable. But he would never say anything to anyone who pronounces it in the UK/American etc. way.

All my names are pronounced differently in English and in my own language, even though for example my middle name exists in both, and with the same spelling I guess, but with different pronunciation (the consonants get a much rounder and softer pronunciation in English, for one thing). If I have to introduce myself to someone English-speaking I'd change my own pronunciation of my own names, first and last, otherwise the other party wouldn't get what I was trying to say. (They might not, regardless, but the chance increases.)

I'd find it really odd if someone with a thick French accent suddenly adopted a British hard J when saying my name

But if they're not saying it with a hard J then they're saying it wrong. I live in a country where Js are soft like a Y, it would be very wrong of me to pronounce people's J names with a hard J instead of a soft one, that's not changing your accent, that's just making a simple effort to pronounce the name correctly which everyone should do barring speech impediments.

If someone introduces themselves to me as Catherine and pronounces it "Catreeen" with a rolled r then I would do my level best to pronounce it that way. I wouldn't turn to the next person and say "John, this is Kathrinn" because I would feel like the worst kind of 'Brit abroad.'

I work with lots of non Brits, and I try to say their names as they say them, with the same stresses. For example: Valentina. Vuh len tinna rather than Val en teena.

I also work with someone who professes this kind of thing to be monumentally hard work and so always shortens people's names or gives them a nickname. I do judge and think she's a rude ignoramus.

Out of interest how did he pronounce others names? Was it always exactly as they said it themselves?

He'd developed an English accent while speaking English as he's been in this country since he was a child, so most names he was fine with. That said, we had another colleague from Bangladesh I believe whose name really wasn't difficult to say. A couple of people, including Joao, couldn't get their head around it though and the colleague told them to just call him by his initial instead.

(I see that some people still don't get what i mean about a change in accent specifically rather than changing what comes out of our mouths phonetically...really difficult to put across what I mean in text.)

My DD has a name that is popular in France but with a different pronunciation, we visit France a lot and is often told she is pronouncing her own name wrong. I do try to change my accent mainly because my accent is very harsh but more to a neutral tone that to imitate someone else's. My German friend cannot pronounce my name as it goes against the phonetic rule of i before e and as we met at work so she read my name prior to meeting she has a mental block. We have agreed a nickname.

I think you're confusing accents with pronouncing names properly. For VW, I would never say Volks-Waggon, but always Folks-vargen, because that's the right way to say it, not me putting on a German accent.

When I come across Barry or a Gary I feel the urge to put on a scouse accen, but even if the Barry in question was scouse, is feel like I'm taking the piss.

Isn't it similar?

None of my Greek rellies can pronounce my English name (even my mum) so they all pronounce it differently. I couldn't give the tiniest of shits.

My ex in laws can't prounounce my name properly as it has a letter combo that doesn't exist in their language and it doesn't bother me at all. My partner corrects me when I anglicise welsh name places. If I don't say "I'm going to Pareeeee this weekend" then I'm sure as hell not going to say I'm going to Clandidno!

I tend to try my best to pronounce people's names how they say them themselves,

Some people's like my DS, I pronounce differently based on what language I'm speaking (Italian pronounciation when speaking Italian, English when speaking English)

Weirdly, I have a German fiend whose name I can only say properly if I'm speaking English, If I'm speaking Italian I really mangle her name

(I see that some people still don't get what i mean about a change in accent specifically rather than changing what comes out of our mouths phonetically...really difficult to put across what I mean in text.

I get what you mean! But it is really difficult to distinguish between one and the other sometimes. I would obviously have no problem calling my French colleague, Catherine, 'Catreen' if that's what she preferred, but I would still say it in a very Anglicised way rather than trying to actually put on a French accent. It's hard to decide where one starts and the other begins sometimes though.

As others have said, it even happens with different regional English accents. My real name has an 'a' sound which I pronounce as a long 'a', while my Northern partner pronounces it with a short one (think Sandra or something like that, although that's not it obviously).

I think if my boyfriend stated saying it with a long 'a' like I do, then it would just sound silly!

I used to have a Greek colleague called Angelos, and a couple of other Greek colleagues at the same place who could obviously say his name 'properly'. That was really tricky, because Angelos was obviously already a transliteration from the Greek alphabet and it didn't quite match what his actual name was in Greek. The proper pronounciation was something sort of like 'Ay-gyelyos' which, try as I might, I could never seem to get right. He said he would prefer to just hear 'Angelos' in an English accent rather than hear me making a total mess of his name!

What made it even trickier is that in Greek, you change the end of the name when you're addressing the person directly, so the Greek colleagues would always call him 'Angele' in conversation (and pronounce the rest of it 'properly') as above. Then sometimes the rest of us would get confused and start referring to him incorrectly as Angele too, in the wrong context... it was a total mess but luckily he didn't seem to care very much. I guess he'd got used to it over the years!