Do you hate it too?: 80

Thursday, January 15, 2009

80 - BCDEGPTVZ

Could you spell your surname for me, please?

R-I-V—

Sorry, eh, uh, er, sorry, R...?

I...

I...

V...

G?

V...

T?

V...

B?

V!

V?

Yes!

R-I-V...

E...

T?

(hang up)

19 comments:

Douglas said...: Romeo
India
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".; January 15, 2009 at 6:10 PM
Gerry Hatrić said...: My last name is spelled differently to a much more common name. I have endless troubles with this area. Grrr...; January 15, 2009 at 6:35 PM
Sophie said...: 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.; January 15, 2009 at 6:38 PM
Michael said...: I doubt the Chinese telephone company help hotline guy would know any of those words.

Your 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.; January 15, 2009 at 6:40 PM
Michael said...: Mulled Vine: Grumble...

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...; January 15, 2009 at 6:42 PM
Jojo a. said...: 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); January 15, 2009 at 6:46 PM
Michael said...: 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...; January 15, 2009 at 6:51 PM
i have the sickness said...: i don't even know...; January 15, 2009 at 8:05 PM
Douglas said...: 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.; January 15, 2009 at 8:42 PM
EURA. said...: Zeta, Eta, Theta... hey me too :)

This post actually took me a while to understand; I thought it was just random letters for a minute.; January 15, 2009 at 10:21 PM
Randa said...: Mine's like that. Especially since a lot of the letters sound the same. It's hard to get the telephone people to understand.; January 16, 2009 at 3:03 AM
Anonymous said...: 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...'

the PCCW people were scared of her.; January 16, 2009 at 5:46 AM
Phil said...: I do hate it too.

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.; January 16, 2009 at 6:05 AM
J.J. in L.A. said...: 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!; January 16, 2009 at 9:21 AM
Anonymous said...: i get the same problem. v - a - Z - q - u - e - Z.
So why do people still insist on calling me vaquez?

OR when instead of Vivienne they called me Lilian - ??; January 16, 2009 at 10:06 AM
Louise Viray said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; January 16, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Louise Viray said...: 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??

.Louise
~please vote in my new poll. please!; January 16, 2009 at 11:58 AM
Anonymous said...: LOL, I've got a common name splet the ordinary way.... and people even have trouble with that!

Go figure...

AV
http://netherregionoftheearthii.blogspot.com/
http://tomusarcanum.blogspot.com/
http://thingsthatfizz.blogspot.com/; January 16, 2009 at 3:14 PM
Michael said...: Short Stick: ...Not a good post, eh?

Douglas: 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'...; January 17, 2009 at 4:38 AM