Pronouncing a name in someone’s own language

[Brightun]

There’s an issue in my team. One member’s name is the same spelling as an English name but the pronunciation in their language is markedly different. Some team members are struggling with this and say they feel stupid/pretentious putting on an accent to say the name. I think they should make the effort and get over it. They are refusing. Team member is saying they feel discriminated. Who is BU?

They should be making an effort even if they struggle to get the unfamiliar sound correct.

The is not comparable to englishising names.
There are sounds people can't pronounce. Doesn't mean you will just do "fuck it, I will just start saying it in my language and the way I want to"

Where did I say it was?! I’m talking about mispronounced names. Try being called Ruth and living in France.

@potniatheron Just use Google translate - there’s a recording there. You can either copy and paste the Russian word рыбы or just type “fish” (English to Russian) so now you’ll get my joke about my pronunciation being fishy too 😆

I just can’t do it. If I say it with some context, “fish and chips is a lovely British dinner” they get it, otherwise my colleagues are 🤷🏻‍♀️ at me - then laugh when I say, “рыбы, fish, рыбы fish godammit!”

The ones refusing to say a name how it's said are ridiculous.

We have two women where I work called Eva. Ee-va. And Ev-a. They each get THEIR pronunciation not how I decide those letters sound.

See, that amazes me. As a teacher, I make a huge effort to pronounce students’ names properly, it’s important to them so it makes sense to say it correctly.

My name is double barrelled and not English. I’m probably being ultra petty, but a colleague emailed me using only the first half this week and after I answered her question, I put ‘It’s xx, not x’. Thanks xx

@rosemarysalter , I think the french would disagree with you on that one.
I've only heard people say it as Tee-airy On-Ree

That's so bad of the team member, I once had a colleague called Claudia but only conversed with her over email so assumed it was pronounced claw-dia. When she came for a visit and I met her in person, I realised she pronounced it Cloud-ia - so I corrected myself and said her name how she pronounced it.
Not difficult to do at all!
Very disrespectful to refuse!

During the France-England match one of the commentators kept saying Hugo Louise 🙄

Tbh I think it depends what the name is

But there is mispronounced letter because it doesn't exist in the language and then there is slight change to a name someone doesn't want to do.
It is different.

As for Beth vs Beff, well, it’s not impossible or difficult for people to say. So say it properly!

Actually it's quite tricky for some people. There are plenty of sounds which are difficult for certain nationalities to make. However it doesn't excuse them from making an effort nor allow them to get away with anglicising.

There is a Lucia where I work, I must admit the first few times I felt a bit of a tit saying Lu-thia as that is how she says it.
I got over it though.

Is it a polish name
they are mangled so easily by brits lol
such as Beata - it’s not ‘beet-uh’

or Jowita from this years strictly - my MIL says ‘Joe- it-uh’ because she sees it written down and says it phonetically 🤣🤣

I can’t work out how they have an issue with feeling they have to use a different accent.

Im Scottish, pronounce work mate David as Day-vid and pronounce my DS friend’s David as Dah-veed, my accent doesn’t change remotely just the pronunciation.

It’s very rude not to use the correct pronunciation.

The worst one for me is Juanita - we just don't have that J sound in English so I do feel a bit of a tit!

Although reverting back to football, no-one seems to pronounce Jose Mourinho the way I would.

I think people should make an effort. Having said that, I work with people from all over the world and colleagues often pronounce my name as they are accustomed to, rather than the English pronunciation. Others can’t get their tongue around it at all, but do try.

It doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

They don’t need to ‘put on an accent’, they just need to pronounce it properly eg Marie if you’re French=marry, English is Mar-ee.

But that's not 'properly' at all. I don't think an English speaker can actually say Marie in French.

Just like most English cannot pronounce Michael in German for example

Going across cultures and languages I expect pronunciation of my name to slightly change. I'm feeling like the name-bearer is being overly fussy, but maybe there's some detail I've missed.

If Niall is being called Alexander, then Niall has a point. But if Niall thinks Neil is outrageously insulting way to say Niall... oh well.

A young Frenchman was repeatedly called Matthew by an English speaker. His name, of course, was Matthieu. How difficult would it have been to call him by his correct name? I felt it was laziness and, frankly, insulting.

But we can all make the effort and manage an acceptable facsimile.

It isn't acceptable to shrug and announce you can't be bothered or find it too onerous to try.

id be very surprised if an English speaker could not manage such a simple name as Marie to a French person

it’s very simple

Your team need a grammar lesson specifically on heteronyms.
Presumably they pronounce live differently depending on whether they are asking where someone resides versus whether they are alive/available now, or wind depending on if they are talking about the weather or how to operate a toy car or clock, or tear depending on if its about crying or a rip, etc etc.

They need to accept that its okay for a word to have different proununciations that are both correct. Colleague's pronunciation of their name might not be the same as the English "version" of that name but it doesn't mean it's wrong.

It might help them to reframe it as 2 completely different words that look similar when written rather than the same name pronounced differently?

Wow thank you!! :-)

Loads of people have made really good points on this thread. I'm really fascinated by the debates on accent vs sounds that exist in some languages and not in others.

My family's Greek and in Greek we don't have the 'ch' sound. So for the word 'church' we would say it more like 'tzortz' (I don't because I learned English at a very young age, young enough to learn English pronunciations, but my grandmother had a very heavy accent all her life and coudn't use the english 'ch' sound.)

So in that instance, or the instance of the Russian vowels mentioned upthread, it's inevitable that there are some names that speakers of other langaues would struggle to pronounce correctly simply because they physiclaly struggle to make the rquired sound. But I think it would be polite to get as close as they can.

Did you know that babies are born physically capable of making all of the sounds that exist in all of the langauges? But as we grow and learn our native language, we lose the ability to make other sounds. I think it's sad!