A blog written by a guy trying to get his mind around the existence of all the stupid, senseless, dim-witted, annoying, ridiculous, laughable and mindless things that people do every, single, day.
My family on my Dad's side were Ugoslavian and my last name is Kindreich. I swear everyone I know pronounes it differently and I can rattle off how to spell it in 2 seconds flat; I get asked for the spelling all the time.
Hail To The Thief: My names not that difficult, although, living here in Hong Kong, communicating it to Chinese locals is a bit annoying. I'm better off just speaking in Chinese...
Hey Douglas, I think V is for Victor, not Viagra! I worked at a teleresearch firm last year and had to learn the IPA by heart. Sometimes I'd be reviewing data with a person over the phone and they'd basically scream at me for saying the wrong words. (ex: W is for Whisky, not Wagon). "Viagra" would probably give people heart attacks (haha - irony)
JoJO a.: lol. I knew that and I'm sure Douglas did too. How about Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, etc...? Meh. Only I know the darn Greek alphabet...
Michael - Thanks, I'll take the first one, it is actually very close to the the actual meaning of Douglas.
"Anglicized form of the Scottish surname Dubhghlas, which meant "dark river" from Gaelic dubh "dark" and glais "water, river". Douglas was originally a river name, which then became a Scottish clan name (belonging to a powerful line of Scottish earls). It has been used as a given name since the 16th century."
Try using words he/she would recognize and probably know how to spell.
JoJO - You are correct, of course, I just figured "Viaga" would register better. I had to know them while I was in the Navy. They changed a few along the way. It used to be Able and Baker but they became Alpha and Beta. A few others were changed too.
I had a friend who had a not-so-great strategy for this when she lived in Hong Kong 'Name?' 'Rosaline Alardice' 'Could you repeat that please?' 'ROSALINE ALARDICE' 'Could you please repeat that?' 'RRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEE....' 'Could you spell that please?' 'A as in anal, L as in lout, A as in ass...'
I remember one time I called this computer tech support center and they had to give me a case number, and they gave it in code like "alpha foxtrot beta" and such, and at the time I didn't know what he was saying, so I wrote down every word that he said.
That was annoying after I figured out what he was doing years later.
I don't speak to people who ask for my name. Unless it's something important. Viray is easy to spell except that people would mistaken the letter V to B. Annoying. Biray!? What the hell??
Romeo
ReplyDeleteIndia
Viagra
Echo
Romeo
Alpha
BTW, what would my Chinese name be if you used its meaning rather than its sound? It's meaning is "dark water".
My last name is spelled differently to a much more common name. I have endless troubles with this area. Grrr...
ReplyDeleteMy family on my Dad's side were Ugoslavian and my last name is Kindreich. I swear everyone I know pronounes it differently and I can rattle off how to spell it in 2 seconds flat; I get asked for the spelling all the time.
ReplyDeleteI doubt the Chinese telephone company help hotline guy would know any of those words.
ReplyDeleteYour name would be 深水, pronounced 'sum sui', or 深色水, pronounced 'sum sick sui'. The former means deep/dark water, the latter means dark-colored water.
Mulled Vine: Grumble...
ReplyDeleteHail To The Thief: My names not that difficult, although, living here in Hong Kong, communicating it to Chinese locals is a bit annoying. I'm better off just speaking in Chinese...
Hey Douglas, I think V is for Victor, not Viagra!
ReplyDeleteI worked at a teleresearch firm last year and had to learn the IPA by heart.
Sometimes I'd be reviewing data with a person over the phone and they'd basically scream at me for saying the wrong words. (ex: W is for Whisky, not Wagon).
"Viagra" would probably give people heart attacks (haha - irony)
JoJO a.: lol. I knew that and I'm sure Douglas did too. How about Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, etc...? Meh. Only I know the darn Greek alphabet...
ReplyDeletei don't even know...
ReplyDeleteMichael - Thanks, I'll take the first one, it is actually very close to the the actual meaning of Douglas.
ReplyDelete"Anglicized form of the Scottish surname Dubhghlas, which meant "dark river" from Gaelic dubh "dark" and glais "water, river". Douglas was originally a river name, which then became a Scottish clan name (belonging to a powerful line of Scottish earls). It has been used as a given name since the 16th century."
Try using words he/she would recognize and probably know how to spell.
JoJO - You are correct, of course, I just figured "Viaga" would register better. I had to know them while I was in the Navy. They changed a few along the way. It used to be Able and Baker but they became Alpha and Beta. A few others were changed too.
Zeta, Eta, Theta... hey me too :)
ReplyDeleteThis post actually took me a while to understand; I thought it was just random letters for a minute.
Mine's like that. Especially since a lot of the letters sound the same. It's hard to get the telephone people to understand.
ReplyDeleteI had a friend who had a not-so-great strategy for this when she lived in Hong Kong
ReplyDelete'Name?'
'Rosaline Alardice'
'Could you repeat that please?'
'ROSALINE ALARDICE'
'Could you please repeat that?'
'RRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEE....'
'Could you spell that please?'
'A as in anal, L as in lout, A as in ass...'
the PCCW people were scared of her.
I do hate it too.
ReplyDeleteI remember one time I called this computer tech support center and they had to give me a case number, and they gave it in code like "alpha foxtrot beta" and such, and at the time I didn't know what he was saying, so I wrote down every word that he said.
That was annoying after I figured out what he was doing years later.
Same here as Mulled Vine...fairly common last name, VERY uncommon spelling. It doesn't help that my first name is Jodi...with an I, not a Y!
ReplyDeletei get the same problem. v - a - Z - q - u - e - Z.
ReplyDeleteSo why do people still insist on calling me vaquez?
OR when instead of Vivienne they called me Lilian - ??
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI don't speak to people who ask for my name. Unless it's something important. Viray is easy to spell except that people would mistaken the letter V to B. Annoying. Biray!? What the hell??
ReplyDelete.Louise
~please vote in my new poll. please!
LOL, I've got a common name splet the ordinary way.... and people even have trouble with that!
ReplyDeleteGo figure...
AV
http://netherregionoftheearthii.blogspot.com/
http://tomusarcanum.blogspot.com/
http://thingsthatfizz.blogspot.com/
Short Stick: ...Not a good post, eh?
ReplyDeleteDouglas: Interesting, Douglas about Able and Baker. You should do a post on that.
eC: :) I know it was hard to understand. I often do short posts when the schoolweek is busy... Sorry.
Randa: It's difficult in Chinese as well. One slight variation in tone can change the word completely.
LittleJ: I do that to my friends. I use curse words...
Phil: I think if people enunciated and listened better, this whole thing wouldn't need to happen.
J.J.: I don't understand how some people can spell my name 'Micheal'. It makes me cringe.
Vivienne: Lilian? O.o
Louise: It's 'What the Hell?' to us, but probably just another name for the other interlocuter. I will stop by later.
AV: Instead of 'Rivera', I say 'river' with an A. That's if they can recognize the word 'river'...