"There are countless horrible things happening all over the world and horrible people prospering, but we must never allow them to disturb our equanimity or deflect us from our sacred duty to sabotage and annoy them whenever possible." -Auberon Waugh
We had a lot of Hindu students in my college; one graduate student (a pretty cool dude, really) had a standing bet: You had 3 chances to say his first name correctly. Winners got a case of beer.
I didn't even try -- his name was something 15 syllables, sounding more like a song than a name. Whoa!
JeffS, when I worked at my university I had to deal with a lot of Indian students, and all of the Hindu ones had multisyllabic names. I think their names are not only personal to themselves but also designate family, clan, caste, and place of origin. Jacob Marley didn't have that much baggage to drag around. Most of the students soon learned to shorten them for American use. Muslims, of course, didn't have this problem since all of them were named Mohammed or variations thereof. The Chinese and Korean students were a relief.
People always say English spelling is hard to understand, but I'm pretty sure the Welsh (and the French) have got us beat.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'd hate to get stuck in a Welsh (or French) spelling bee.
ReplyDeleteThis is why my ancestors left Wales.
ReplyDeleteImagine a Welsh spelling bee.
ReplyDeleteSay the fast five times. Wonder what she's saying.
ReplyDeleteWe had a lot of Hindu students in my college; one graduate student (a pretty cool dude, really) had a standing bet: You had 3 chances to say his first name correctly. Winners got a case of beer.
ReplyDeleteI didn't even try -- his name was something 15 syllables, sounding more like a song than a name. Whoa!
JeffS, when I worked at my university I had to deal with a lot of Indian students, and all of the Hindu ones had multisyllabic names. I think their names are not only personal to themselves but also designate family, clan, caste, and place of origin. Jacob Marley didn't have that much baggage to drag around. Most of the students soon learned to shorten them for American use. Muslims, of course, didn't have this problem since all of them were named Mohammed or variations thereof. The Chinese and Korean students were a relief.
ReplyDeleteThe Chinese students had issues with our jargon, but had easy names to pronounce, Rebecca. I had to explain what a movie was to one.
ReplyDeleteThank God I didn’t have to spell “ Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” back then, with no INTERNET and all.