Who Here Has a Foreign-Sounding Name and How Do You Deal With It?

[Yanick]

My first name is Russian or Polish although it is pretty much pronounced like John with a Y instead of the J. That throws lots of people for a loop. If I make reservations for anything, I'll just use John because it saves time and effort.

Both my wife and our dog have very American names and my Russian family has lots of difficulty with both.

Living in a place like NY, it really doesn't even bother me anymore. It was slightly irritating when I was a kid and had to correct every teacher for a good couple of weeks at the start of every class. By High School I would correct them for the first week or so, then I wouldn't even bother.

But over all I'm so used to meeting people with "foreign" names that those are typically the only people whose names I can remember. After meeting 30-50 John's, Jack's and Anthony's in my life; when I hear a name like that it goes in 1 ear and out the other.

 

[Curious3141]

I have the opposite problem - an American sounding name with a foreign spelling (Swiss ancestory with a German name). Since the spelling is easier than the American word, people invent unusual pronunciations for my name.

"Bob"? Well, Rowan Atkinson helped me understand your problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKPdrA6YQAk