To think Asian name may put off customers

[Stcatherine]

I'm prepared to be flamed for posting this. My dp is Asian and is trying to get jobs as a handyman but nobody is responding to him. Do you think that when people see a Asian name in his profile that it puts them off. He is very experienced and skilled. By the way I'm not trying to say that everybody is racist but have been aware from past experience that some people think along these lines.

Our plumber is “forin”, he is called mario believe it or not!

But I would be put off in my area by an Asian handyman. And I am genuinely really sorry for it OP.

Unfortunately I come from a working class area that was bought out by Asians, as in we sold our house because some prominent Asian men knocked on our door and offered cash.. White people are not welcome there any more, especially women. It’s like a daily fail wet dream, the old butchers is a Muslim school now!

But the hideous, hideous extensions and poor workmanship on all the houses is just astonishing!!! And not to mention all the poor people who have potentially been trafficked to the uk to “work” on these houses, not to mention the many,many car washes and takeaways.. oh and the blatant drug dealing.

I am sure your DH isn’t one of the horrific asain gangsters that have ruined my chidhood neighbourhood! But he probably would benefit from having a business name and some reviews on a Facebook business page.

I will surely be flamed for this post, which will distract from the OPs question, but if you haven’t had experience of this you really can’t understand what it’s liek to live it.

Unfortunately I think it is true.

Personally, I'd go by recommendation so if a few neighbours found his (or her) work excellent it wouldn't matter if his name was Prince, Robert or Sandeep.

Perhaps he could go for a shortened version. May anglicise it a bit and make him sound more friendly/informal. Bloody shame he has to mind you.

@PwngAly always one who finds anything possible to fake offense at isn't there

'An' Asian is no different to saying 'A' British Man, or 'A' South American.

PengAly
Wtf do you think i mean, don’t even try to say i’m being racist. Stop looking for something that isn’t there.

but if you haven’t had experience of this you really can’t understand what it’s liek to live it.

And if you havnt had the experience of being turned down for jobs because of the colour of your skin than you couldn't understand either. I respect that you hate what your town has become but nobody forced your family or anyone on that area to sell...you really shouldnt make assumptions on all Asian people based on your experience. Also, Asian included maby different cultures so its not usful to group them all together.

PinkGin24 and teaandgingercake woah calm down! I never said it was rascist, id honestly not heard that phrase before. Geez im not "looking" for anything holds up hands to show innocence

I have noticed that nearly all the Eastern European tradesmen I've had round to do things have shorted their name and Anglicised it. So I had Stan the plumber who was Stanislaus and so on. TBH, I don't care who people are or where they're from so long as they do a good job at the right price.

Maybe make up two versions of his business card and see what happens.
Is his actual name easy enough to pronounce?
When we moved and I needed a plumber I picked a load of business cards from a store and selected three to call for quotes. I dismissed one, because I had no clue how to pronounce (think Welsh village) the name on the card. I just didn't want to call without knowing how to address the person. Of course, I could have called and asked and had I had a personal recommendation, it might have been different, but, if all you have is a business card there isn't much to go on. On the other hand, I included the female plumber for no other reason than liking the fact she was a female plumber.

sabine by comparison round my way there is a contracting company called Reliable Polish Builders .

As PinkGIN said, there’s always one. We can all feel aggrieved about stuff PengAlly, im quite aware there’s are different cultures, however for the purpose of this thread it wasn’t necessary for me to specify.

It depends on where you are. We saw this when SIL was working in a very underprivileged area which is a bit ironic because her name/family is upper class (people in this area had a knee jerk reaction of reverence to their British overlords but apparently this didn’t apply to foreigners who were treated very badly).

@oneweekleft how does that work? A lot of native British can’t speak English properly either.

*teaandgingercake

As PinkGIN said, there’s always one. We can all feel aggrieved about stuff PengAlly,*

Is it really necessary to keep goading me? I already explained I didnt mean to accuse anyone of being racist, itd just thrown me off to see that wording as i hadnt before. Apologies for offending you but this subject is rather close to me as since childhood ive had to experience prejudice because of my skin colour and ethnicity and i still do.

Meant to say @teaandgingercake in my above

It was a cross post PengAlly, nobody has goaded you.

Horrible as it is, I am probably guilty of this.
If I had to choose from an easy to pronounce English name, and a more difficult to pronounce obviously ‘foreign’ name, I would choose the English. Of course, reviews would come first but if they were both reviewed equally good..
And it’s hard to explain why as I really don’t think I am racist.

Firstly, I wouldn’t want to mispronounce the name.
And secondly, I guess I would (very wrongly) assume the English named person would be a native English speaker so there wouldn’t be any language barrier miscommunication. Thinking about it, the ‘foreign’ named person could just as easily be a native fluent English speaker.
So I guess I am unconsciously racist. Never noticed it before and it’s embarrassing.

Yes I think so.

My grandad is a painter and decorator. He got many more jobs when he used his middle name of John, as opposed to his first name which is Bilal (he has a white mum and a Pakistani dad).

unfortunately it's true and has been for years just different groups
King George VI changed Prince Philip's name and his uncles to Mountbatten they were Battenberg but at the beginning of WWII a german surname was a very bad idea, lots of escaping German Jews also anglicized their names to be safe here

Donald Trump's German Grandfather known as Fred Trump was born Friedrich Drumpf it was anglicized on reaching the USA

A friend who is Chinese Malaysian name is Jeh Sie but written as Jessie or Jess gets better results

Mo Farah is hardly ever called Mohammed, it's not right but is there an English name a bit like it or try using his initials instead of
Abdul Hussein handyman maybe A. H. Home Services

Where in God’s name do some of you live? Why would you assume that someone advertising himself as a handyman called Mohammed or Rashid was a recent arrival from Punjab with poor English, rather than a thoroughly assimilated local guy whose grandparents or great-grandparents came over in the 1950s?

Im not white english but DH is and i have taken his surname. I definitely feel like it makes a difference when i send my CV for a job. I agree with PPs who say maybe he should have a business name with his initials "RH trading" for example

@Parthenope
I think you have just outlined the problem, the UK still struggles with racism based on ignorance. Some parts of the country do still have a 1950s attitude towards race and ethnicity.

The problem with Anglicising his name or hiding behind a trade name is that he might get a lot of wasted call outs and even some horrible reactions.

Going round to assess a job, giving a quote and then not hearing from them again.

Because racism is alive and well and rife across this country.

Yeah, it's still racism if you assume that your non-white tradesman won't be able to speak good English. My mate Raj was born in this country and people still compliment him on his excellent language skills. He was born in Wolverhampton.

Unfortunately I think you are correct in your thinking.

Wow, shocked to see how many people think that British decent people speak better English. That’s certainly not true in my experience. Things like this make me really glad that I am white enough to pass for British and my parents had the good sense to give me an English first name.