Eventually that will ripple through the school, making that student feel known in a place where before they felt unknown. Thus you will be sure to find names from China, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Cuba, Barbados, Argentina, Brazil… You will find Igbo names (like Anyanwu, Ekeanyanwu, Iwuanyanwu, Nwogwugwu etc), Yoruba names (like Akinola, Olarinwaju, Aboderin, Akinsoroju etc), Bachama names. As a Jennifer who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s with millions of other Jennifers, I was fortunate to never experience anything like the situation you described. Finally, there was a small group I think of as the calibrators, people who recognized that my name required a little more effort. I may never see him or her again, and if I do I want to be remembered as being assertive yet gracious. (Kind of rhymes with “Her pots ski,” minus the “t” in pots.) These unique names are a way that people have etched out their own culture in a hostile social environment and acknowledging them tells those kids, you’re as “normal” as Emily or Jack. Listen to an Extended Version of this Post in a Podcast: Samira Fejzic was used to people saying her name wrong, especially in school. { bidder: 'onemobile', params: { dcn: '8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b', pos: 'cdo_rightslot_flex' }}, iasLog("criterion : cdo_tc = resp"); It took us several minutes to sort out who I was asking for. Other’s didn’t do as well saying there was a “Jessica” and a “Other Jessica”. I do not allow other students to mutter a name, stumble and then say “whatever.” I let the person named drill us with the actual pronunciation. Most of my students are from a rural Hispanic area and I often find their names very difficult to pronounce. I teach teens and they can be a little self conscious to correct the teacher. This is a valuable article, and a good one to think about as the semester begins. Because then my son, Ezeanyinabia Uchenna Oluwadamilohun – Eze Anyanwu – will be graduating from Gordon. BBC Learning English: ESL Resource for Superb Video and Audio, 5 Verb Tense Worksheets: Past, Present and Future Conjugation, 7 Noun Worksheets to Teach Persons, Places or Things, 7 Fun Worksheets with Celebrities, Politicians and Historical Figures, 7 Verb Worksheets: How to Teach “Action Words”, How to Teach English in Korea with EPIK Program or Hagwon, 10 Car Coloring Sheets: Sports, Muscle, Racing Cars and More, The 5 Predictable Stages of Second Language Acquisition, 10 Brainstorming Activities for Kids, Adults and Anyone, 101 ESL Conversation Topics to Break the Silence [2020], 10 Dialogue Worksheets: How to Facilitate Roleplaying. JANELLE. window.__tcfapi('removeEventListener', 2, function(success){ If I were to attend school in Japan it would never occur to me that the teachers were seeking to belittle me because they had a problem pronouncing my name. Can't find what you are looking for? However, my name is Paula (pronounced as a Spanish speaker would say it). { bidder: 'appnexus', params: { placementId: '11654149' }}, I didn’t mind so much. Your email address will not be published. Imagine yourself being an American and pronouncing this Igbo name: Innocent Alozie Nwogwugwu! { bidder: 'onemobile', params: { dcn: '8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b', pos: 'cdo_topslot_728x90' }}, Thank you so much for this post! Names are important. { bidder: 'pubmatic', params: { publisherId: '158679', adSlot: 'cdo_rightslot' }}]}]; It was understandable though because substitutes would often stop at his name and just go blank. Names are who we are. I let them know that this will happen throughout their lives and not be view this as bigotry in any way. It makes all the kids feel a lot better especially because a majority of them are black and have unique names with unique spellings. He was rather calling the “p” (which is close to kp in Igbo) as “b”. Let’s not forget that young immigrants may want to assimilate and be part of the group ASAP. Serious question since monday is fidst day of class. I do ask, and try to show respect to get their names right. Kind of a Lot, writer Tracy Clayton (under the name Brokey McPoverty) rails against Ryan Seacrest’s move to shorten the name of actress Quvenzhané Wallis to “Little Q.” She points out that Seacrest and other media figures treat the names of some actors—who happen to be white—differently: “The problem is that white Hollywood…doesn’t deem her as important as, say, Renee Zellweger, or Zach Galifianakis, or Arnold Schwarzenegger, all of whom have names that are difficult to pronounce—but they manage. Most Americans use Makayla (or any of a host of variant spellings), blasting through that diphthong to make a three-syllable pronunciation. Growing up, my Lebanese father and my Lebanese friends who speak Arabic pronounced it Nuhj’la (like “nudge” without the ‘d’, with a ‘la’ at the end). A special thanks to you, Scott, for pronouncing Anyanwu well at the Commencement. It’s just an opportunity to grow. It’s fairly common in Lancaster by my research. I asked the missionary about his name, and the missionary laughed. window.__tcfapi('addEventListener', 2, function(tcData, success) { I was on jury service once, the old-fashioned judge just would not get the defence counsel’s African surname right, though it was quite phonetic. In the diagram below, it displays some of the most common features of a mouth. Mr. M (gym teacher – a certified jock) called him Freder for the next 4 years. Now whenever I have students whose names could have multiple spellings (or it’s not a name I’m used to), I always double-check with them. I could not hear a differnce between what he was saying was the correct pronunciation and what I was saying. It used to drive me crazy when I was young that the teachers couldn’t be bothered to get names right. So it seems logical that any spelling that looks similar would be pronounced that way too. Its amazing to me what people find offensive these days. I am not a Spanish speaker, however, because I have dark skin, there seem to be presumptions. I have more important things to worry about. Of course we ALL called him Freder after that, even though we knew him as Fred all through elementary school. But mispronounced name is only a small part of the immigrant experience. When I worked for the Open University in London, we spent a lot of time phoning students before the degree ceremony to make sure we pronounced their names right. googletag.pubads().setCategoryExclusion('resp').setCategoryExclusion('wprod'); Students found their names and got to work, and meanwhile, we were able to go from student to student, asking them what their name was and what they liked to be called. This is understandable, since English typically does not split diphthongs; hence the use of the umlaut over the e to prompt a four-syllable pronunciation. Well done Jennifer. googletag.pubads().setTargeting('ad_h', Adomik.hour); Although most of your students may not know the word microaggression, they’re probably familiar with that vague feeling of marginalization, the message that everyone else is “normal,” and they are not. Whether you intend to or not, what you’re communicating is this: Your name is different. I listened to your Podcast and reminded me of the following post I wrote in 2014. { bidder: 'triplelift', params: { inventoryCode: 'Cambridge_Billboard' }}, I considered butchering her name back, but she was so self-absorbed she wouldn’t have caught the point. "authorization": "https://dictionary.cambridge.org/auth/info?rid=READER_ID&url=CANONICAL_URL&ref=DOCUMENT_REFERRER&type=&v1=&v2=&v3=&v4=english&_=RANDOM", Believe me, I do know how to pronounce the last name I married into. I mean, when my name is spelled with one “r” in my email, and I sign it, “Regards, Teri” and they send it back starting “Dear Terri.”. This is something that really affects a student’s motivation and self concept but its rarely brought up in any teacher training or school culture meeting. I grew up in a border town and attended public schools where I was a minority. dfpSlots['topslot_a'] = googletag.defineSlot('/2863368/topslot', [], 'ad_topslot_a').defineSizeMapping(mapping_topslot_a).setTargeting('sri', '0').setTargeting('vp', 'top').setTargeting('hp', 'center').setTargeting('ad_group', Adomik.randomAdGroup()).addService(googletag.pubads()); If you have hundreds of names to learn, get systematic: Starting now, carry around a clipboard with all the names you’ll need to say – even those you think you already know, and start checking in with kids in the cafeteria, in the halls, in the stands at a basketball game. Some names are just really hard to pronounce and remember. And yes, I make an extra effort to pronounce names correctly. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("cdo_l", "en"); Luckily I have a “feel” for language, but I do know people who just can’t remember pronunciation (the “bumblers”). BTW it’s Free for individuals to sign-up. },{ Names change how we feel about ourselves and trust me being outright called “other” is not a super way to start identifying yourself. { So I think the question “how do you pronounce your name” is a perfectly acceptable question, because other people may decide to pronounce it differently and tell you the way you’re pronouncing it is wrong. Fejzic (FAY-zich), whose family left Bosnia in the early nineties and moved to the U.S. in 1999, experienced this ritual for ten years, and she understood that people in her new town weren’t used to names like hers, despite the fact that the area’s Bosnian population had grown massive in recent years. I was watching a YouTube video of a news announcer (Cenk Uygur) explaining how to pronounce his name. So I literally could join the Daughters of the Revolution, but most Americans I meet side-eye my last name. I say this jokingly and without malice, but if that learning has truly been ingrained, it takes awhile to retrain your brain. I’m curious, though–how do you know they are pronouncing your name on purpose? { bidder: 'ix', params: { siteId: '195465', size: [300, 250] }},
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