Should People Make An Effort to Correctly Pronounce Names?

--Caller asks if people should make an effort to pronounce difficult-to-pronounce names
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Broadcast on July 22, 2022

#davidpakmanshow #pronounce #names

[dogmt_]

Yes. It’s the smallest sign of respect that you can do for someone.

[djartyom]

possibly the most perfect phone call in the history of phone calls

[inscrutablemungus]

Yes. It's basic respect. If you don't know how to pronounce a name, just ask. That person's probably relieved that you're making an effort as opposed to butchering it like everyone else.

[fighttheevilrobots]

I've been an ESL teacher for immigrants to the USA for over 15 years.
Yes! They should make this effort! It shows basic decency and kindness. I ask my students to pronounce their names several times so I get it right.

[kurushii]

I've mispronounced names already. Making an effort to pronounce correctly isn't that hard once you know the right way. It's infinitely better than intentionally getting the name wrong.

[christinavuyk]

They should definitely make the effort but speaking from experience you have to have a fair level of tolerance too 😅

[JonatGo]

One of the most prolific examples is Vice President Kamala Harris. It's easy to mispronounce her name based on how it's spelled, but once you learn you should use the proper pronunciation. It is particularly disrespectful when people especially those Republicans go out of their way to mispronounce her name. So yes, it's important to properly pronounce people's name or at least try to do so.

[tranquil]

I've noticed that most of my fellow Americans, if they see a name in our alphabet, just presume that is pronounced as in English (or at least US English). European names then seem easy to pronounce, so why bother looking into it? We don't learn foreign languages, so the phonetics of Spanish, French, or Italian get mangled. A male named Yvon gets feminized to Yvonne for example. We should have gotten a least some sense of pronunciation in our schooling, especially given the large Spanish speaking population, and in New England where I live, at least the ability to pronounce Quebec as it is in French. As far as non-European languages: probably best to ask.

[jupiterran]

I'm used to people mispronouncing my name. Once a teacher pronounced it right the first day of class. My brother then said "I had him".

[efficiencygaming]

I think everyone should try to make an effort to correctly pronounce people's names. It's probably the simplest way of showing someone respect. However, there will be people who have difficulty pronouncing certain names.

A lot of people (including myself) have trouble pronouncing the rolled R sound that appears in certain foreign names. I've actually gotten into problems with people in the past as a result of that. What would be the right thing to do in a case like that?

My name is by no means complex or difficult to say for most people, but it does rhyme with a lot of other names that are arguably more common, and it really grinds my gears when people call me those other names instead. It's like saying your name is Harry but getting called Gary instead.

[monie]

As an immigrant & polyglot "I" try my hardest to get names correct & will often ASK for the correct pronounciation. It's COMMON COURTESY. Being foreign, my first name is Spanish, I'm not from Spain or Mexico. But when people mispronounce it, it becomes a horrible swear word in my native language. PS, in my native language "Karen, " is pronounced "Kahreen." You're welcome, Karen's who AREN'T KAREN'S! Use that as often as you like!

[wtf]

This reminds me of when I worked for a fence co. in Alabama and for awhile we were installing underground dog fences from a company in Boston. I was on the phone with a manager who had a really thick Bostonian accent and at the end of the call I had to ask him 3 or 4 times to please repeat his name. Finally I asked, can you spell that please? And he said *B O B.* I was certainly embarrassed but he was a good guy and we had a good laugh about it.

[haymaker]

People always mispronounced my name and misspelled it. If that wasn't enough they would argue with me and correct me and tell me I was the one getting it wrong. So I changed my name. Now everybody gets my new name right.

[ruferd]

This is the one part I don't like about Dave's show: he gets mad at right wingers for mispronouncing names like Kamala, AOC, Katanji, Ilhan Omar, etc. But then he purposefully mispronounces right wingers names as a way to not show respect for them, but then says people should make the effort to show respect...

[chrisbailey]

We call the capital of France Paris, but the French call it Paree (phonetically), Capital of Italy Rome, but the Italians call it Roma, Munich München, Milan Milano and so on. I think India renaming some of their cities (Bombay/Mumbai, Madras/Chennai and so on) China with Peking/Beijing is the correct call. The French should call Londres London (which to my face they always do) so why don't we reciprocate?

[lknanml]

Yes they should try but if they can't because of a dialect difficulty like rolling or something people should let it slide. That is a sign of respect going both ways.

[TheHesseJames]

Yes, they should. I am always annoyed by hosts who just say “I probably botched the name” because it just means you are aware but don’t really care. Make an effort, you can find the correct pronunciation on the internet! I mean not all names are as difficult as the Schwarzschild-radius which isn’t actually that difficult to pronounce correctly either.

[ReturnToSenderz]

Even if you struggle to pronounce a name, people generally appreciate the effort. It’s like learning how to say “please” and “thank you” in the native language when visiting a foreign country. It’s not that hard, but it gets you a lot of good will.

[danteshydratshirt]

A quick anecdote to answer this question. Im British and between 2008 and 2016 I lived in Switzerland in the French speaking part. As part of my attempt to improve my French skills I went to classes. My real name is Keith. The woman who was teaching really struggled with my name (as a few other people there did - the letter K is very uncommon in French language so they struggle) Despite telling her how it was pronounced several times she never did and insisted on calling me George. I took it in good spirits throughout the course. When the course was on its final days the pupils were asked their opinion of the course...so I roasted her and the course. Quite satisfying. What annoyed me was her not even attempting to pronounce my name anywhere near correctly and giving up after 2 or 3 attempts. I didnt have much problem with those that attempted it but mangled it hideously - the funniest one was being called Kate. Moral of the story - at least TRY. TBH looking back on it I really should have made a stand at the beginning regarding that teacher and insisted that she should use my real name

[deceptthecon]

Yes, I always make it a point to understand how to pronounce someone's name correctly. At a previous company, we had a Sonya and a Sonnia, and they sound very different. You don't need to be criticized for getting it wrong once or twice, but I do believe an effort should be made out of respect.