You know when i was in the university in Nigeria,a lecturer told us the story of how he had been in the US in the early 70's for his undergraduate and master's programme,among the things that i found intresting was the issue about his name,of course he had an english name(as we normally call it)as a lot of our parents born during that era had due to the influence of the churches they wey born into,so you had names like Maria Uchechukwu Okoro or Peter Chukwunonso Agu(you get my drift),well my lecturer said he always introduced himself by his native name and this seemed to be a problem because the American's could not pronounce it well,it got to a point where they asked him if he could shorten but he told them no, that he had learnt how to pronounce theirs and so they should his.
I don't know how that worked for him but i sure know he had his name mis-pronounced a lot.I am not going to bore you with the different variations of which i have had my name being called and shortened,some have even abandoned calling me my first name and calling me the first part of my surname which is a compound name and the first part has just 3 letters.I have even had someone copy my name and gone home to study and then come back to pronounce it very close to the real thing.(was actually happy when i gave him a pass mark)at least he made the effort.
My is name is not that hard,i wish my name was CHIMAMANDA,KASARACHI or SOMTOCHUKWU, then i will really give them something to learn,i mean they would have to pronounce it all,well i will think of a very conc name and then change my name and see how that goes.CIAO
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Hi guys,right now the champions league final is on,i sat and watched the first half and i must give myself an award for that,not that i don’...
From reading your blog, it seems like you're in Italy. So people over there have such trouble pronouncing Nigerian names too? I thought it was mainly Americans, many of whom lack the patience to learn something they're not used to. Anyways, your position affords you the opportunity to be a cultural ambassador. Make una represent! :)
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