Yeah. As someone of Hispanic decent visiting up north that was fun trying to learn on the German names lol. And trying to watch all the yanks pronounce my last name!
Or if you’re prepared for the wrong ethnicity. I knew an Indian kid named Tejas(Tay-jis) once. He lived in an area with a huge Hispanic influence. Literally everyone assumed it was Tay-has when they met him, even after he said it.
This was something I greatly appreciated with David Vincent, who MC’d Sakura-Con’s Closing Ceremonies this year. He made a point to meet with our cultural performers before the ceremonies to make sure he had the pronunciations correct.
I recall the time that David Gerrold was MCing a costume contest and was visited with so many unpronounceable character names (and NO phonetic breakdown) he finally gave up and started introducing people as “Fred. From the planet Fred”. No idea what the balance was between annoyed and amused on the part of the entries. 🙂
UnCONventional is a comic that ran from December 2009 to December 2019 about the staff of a small town anime convention and their lives. This is a complete online archive of the comic.
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6 thoughts on “Krzyzzanowski”
Lincilla
Yeah. As someone of Hispanic decent visiting up north that was fun trying to learn on the German names lol. And trying to watch all the yanks pronounce my last name!
EcchiKitty
Amazing how easily an ethnic name can trip you up, even if you think you’re ready for them. But Polish names seem to do it deliberately.
Viktor
Or if you’re prepared for the wrong ethnicity. I knew an Indian kid named Tejas(Tay-jis) once. He lived in an area with a huge Hispanic influence. Literally everyone assumed it was Tay-has when they met him, even after he said it.
Dessa
This was something I greatly appreciated with David Vincent, who MC’d Sakura-Con’s Closing Ceremonies this year. He made a point to meet with our cultural performers before the ceremonies to make sure he had the pronunciations correct.
Chiaroscuro
One joy at Registration was people with a badge name of something like “Tigerfoxxx”. Your name would immediately be “Tiger Fox ecks ecks.” Every time.
Kay Shapero
I recall the time that David Gerrold was MCing a costume contest and was visited with so many unpronounceable character names (and NO phonetic breakdown) he finally gave up and started introducing people as “Fred. From the planet Fred”. No idea what the balance was between annoyed and amused on the part of the entries. 🙂
About the Comic
UnCONventional is a comic that ran from December 2009 to December 2019 about the staff of a small town anime convention and their lives. This is a complete online archive of the comic.
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