I grew up in the state that I am residing in, and to my utter and persisting annoyance, I keep struggling to get my second name(sometimes the first name too) spelled and pronounced correctly ever since I was as young as I remember! This is no short of a tragedy. I can't find a sane reason why this happens, except that the people involved are certainly too ignorant, apathetic, insensitive and sometimes uneducated, some of those attributes being so native to my place. When I don't, EVER, misspell or mispronounce anyone, and absolutely anyone, and at least made a sincere effort if I have ever failed, is that not obligatory on the part of every other person, no matter what ethnicity they belong to? As outrageous as it may seem, they write down a name that they think is a near match, something that is usually common and prevalent in the country.
This personal grief, apart from being a source of frustration, has often taken larger dimensions as it permeates into legal territory where I am forced to run pillar to post to get bad documents fixed, despite spoon-fed spellings. Especially with the present ruling entity that has set a benchmark for 'legalized lies" and legalized terror , these paperwork and corrections are a reason for deeper anguish. Dreaming of a digitized, 2 billion strong nation is one thing, knowing that you have efficient workforce to do so, is another.
I also disliked that a person from the puzzle community did not care to find out the correct pronunciation, thankfully not the spelling, before announcing my name at a national event.
This personal grief, apart from being a source of frustration, has often taken larger dimensions as it permeates into legal territory where I am forced to run pillar to post to get bad documents fixed, despite spoon-fed spellings. Especially with the present ruling entity that has set a benchmark for 'legalized lies" and legalized terror , these paperwork and corrections are a reason for deeper anguish. Dreaming of a digitized, 2 billion strong nation is one thing, knowing that you have efficient workforce to do so, is another.
I also disliked that a person from the puzzle community did not care to find out the correct pronunciation, thankfully not the spelling, before announcing my name at a national event.
"When I don't, EVER, misspell or mispronounce anyone, and absolutely anyone, and at least made a sincere effort if I have ever failed,"
ReplyDeleteYou realize that the second half contradicts the first half of the above, right? ;)
Anyway, I sympathize on the spelling part of things, you can imagine the number of variations that have come about of 'Prasanna Venkatesh Seshadri' over the years. I think you should give leeway on pronunciation though.
That goes more into cultural leanings, speech pattern backgrounds, etc. I tell people what my name is, and even well educated, genuine, well mannered people get it wrong every time, and I'm sure you and I would get things wrong on that front too if and when we need to pronounce some names that are outside our own regular speech patterns. The fact is people are usually understanding of this (and rightly so), so we won't know if we go wrong either usually.
A very large part of that whole frustration comes from all other things mentioned, than the last one about you. It was there to present an example and make the reader empathetic, than to single you out and criticize. I would have corrected you at the venue if that was the case, however it didn't hit me hard enough back then as I was just too accustomed to it. So, I am sure you don't take it as a strong criticism or complaint. Something very similar happened today and I could not take it anymore, and what came after is this post.
ReplyDeleteMoving to the last paragraph in your comment, the context is and has to be limited to within the country. Your phrase of "outside our regular speech" is more relevant when the names are from other countries. I am sure you agree here. I, and all of us would often go wrong there.
Honestly, I really can't imagine any variations coming out of your name unless it was a foreign speaker, which as I mentioned is not what I am worried about.
You're wrong actually. I myself know a Prasanna whose pronunciation is slightly different and I know so many Anurags, Anuraags, etc. that I can't even keep track. Maybe I just know too many people :)
DeleteSo it is definitely valid within the country too. This may specifically be because our country is India with so many diverse dialects and ways of speech, but I still don't think there is any point in criticizing pronunciations. I'm sure you've heard South Indian accents, false foreign accents, North Indian accents, broken English accents, and probably many more.
If you tell me the way to pronounce your name I'll try to get it right and if I don't after some tries I'll just try to be as close as possible and be satisfied with that. Its the same for anyone from anywhere.
When I referred to your mistake, it was about the last name, not the first. It is pronounced as if there were a double 'a' in the end, not in the beginning, as you did.
ReplyDeleteI am not being critical about strangers making pronunciation errors, more so when they don't speak the same language. However, I cannot be "understanding of this" if I am around for a long while and yet you (or anyone) are unable to get it right.
Thank you, and I appreciate.