# Mispronouncing Student’s Name Now Considered a ‘Microaggression’



## matt267 PE (Sep 22, 2016)

According to this article (http://www.cnsnews.com/blog/amy-furr/mispronouncing-students-name-now-considered-microaggression):



> “Mispronouncing a student’s name truly negates his or her identity, which, in turn, can hinder academic progress,”





> The Washoe County School District in Reno, Nevada is one of 528 school districts across the country that have recently implemented a campaign to “pronounce students’ names correctly” - including names teachers and administrators find difficult or unfamiliar - in order to be sensitive to the ancestral and historical significance of a child’s name.


I'm now left to wonder what I could have achieved in life if my teachers weren't so insensitive to my Italian-American culture.

The "g" is silent people!!! What the hell is wrong with you? All these years I've been left not knowing who I am. I feel a great deal of deep sadness knowing that my daughter's will grow up with the same identity issues while being held back academically. Until I read this article, I had no idea I was a victim. I remember one time when my brother and I were kids. We were at a school award ceremony and the teachers mispronounced our last name so badly that my brother didn't even know they were calling him. Can you imagine? He was like the only one that didn't get a certificate. I bet he doesn't even know how hurt he is.

Thank you Washoe County School District. Thank you for looking out for the fragile feels of the worlds children. But screw you for being 35 years too late. How dare you fail to take action to protect me and my brother. He didn't get his certificate you selfish dicks.


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## jeb6294 (Sep 22, 2016)

Their names need to be spelled correctly when they all get their participation trophies also.


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## Supe (Sep 22, 2016)

People routinely mispronounce my name with a soft O instead of a hard O (think "moth" vs. "both").  Can I add all those "microaggressions" up into big ones, and call my actions moving forward self-defense?


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## willsee (Sep 22, 2016)




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## snickerd3 (Sep 22, 2016)

dude i grew up with people butchering my last name both in saying and spelling.


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## csb (Sep 22, 2016)

Here's the thing- we have a guy at work who mispronounces people's names to be an ass. My mother-in-law has purposefully misspelled my name because she's an ass. There is power in names. 

That said, I'm not permananently scarred by this, but it is a power play.


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## matt267 PE (Sep 22, 2016)

And there is a difference between being a ass and making a mistake or just not being able to pronounce a sound.


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## csb (Sep 22, 2016)

For sure. I'm not saying that trying to figure out how to say "Alicia" or "Bertagnoli" the first time should be perfect, but if someone tells you, "It's ah-lee-cee-ah," and you continue to say, "Ah-lish-ah," you are either too dumb to learn simple things or you are gunning for something else.


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## SNAPE/SMOTT PE (Sep 22, 2016)

Stop coming up with unique ways to spell your kids name, and/or unique names! Or STFU about the name being mispronounced!

On the other hand, I ask people how to say their name when I'm in doubt.


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## matt267 PE (Sep 22, 2016)

csb said:


> Bertagnoli


Is the "g" silent?


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## csb (Sep 22, 2016)

matt267 PE said:


> The "g" is silent people!!! What the hell is wrong with you?






matt267 PE said:


> Is the "g" silent?


What the hell is wrong with you?


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## matt267 PE (Sep 22, 2016)

It's called microaggression. It's a new thing.


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## csb (Sep 22, 2016)

It's just a new word for asshole.


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## wilheldp_PE (Sep 22, 2016)

I guess that 1st graders are going to have to provide a phonetic spelling of their name to the teacher prior to the first roll call so that they don't accidentally get discriminated against.

I was selling my car to CarMax, and a very nice lady was doing the paperwork for me.  At one point, I had to talk to a loan officer to give permission for them to discuss loan information with the CarMax lady.  The loan officer asked me the name of the person they could speak with.  I looked at the CarMax lady's name tag, and it read "Ayshia."  I straight up asked her "how do you pronounce your name?"  Turns out, it was Asia.  If I had guessed, it would have been more along the lines of Ayeisha.  

Now imagine a teacher facing a class of 30+ kids with probably half of them having names like that.  I can understand it being assholish at best, and perhaps discriminatory, to mis-pronounce a student's name for a whole year/semester, but to expect a teacher to nail the pronunciation on their first try is asinine.


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## snickerd3 (Sep 22, 2016)

maybe that is why reading programs are now HEAVY on the phonics.


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## knight1fox3 (Sep 22, 2016)

Phonetic pronunciation was a must in grad school, especially during the commencement ceremony. As an example, here was one of my colleague's names:

Sadatgoltabarestani, Seyedmehdi

Any takers on a first shot pronunciation?


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## Audi Driver P.E. (Sep 22, 2016)

My name is Randy.  It's pronounced ah'-sum.


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## snickerd3 (Sep 22, 2016)

I don't know how to phonetically spell...the last name i would have said   sigh ed meh dee


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## Supe (Sep 22, 2016)

knight1fox3 said:


> Phonetic pronunciation was a must in grad school, especially during the commencement ceremony. As an example, here was one of my colleague's names:
> 
> Sadatgoltabarestani, Seyedmehdi
> 
> Any takers on a first shot pronunciation?


Naga... Naga... Not gonna work here anymore!


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## matt267 PE (Sep 22, 2016)

knight1fox3 said:


> Sadatgoltabarestani


Is the "g" silent?


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## knight1fox3 (Sep 22, 2016)

:facepalm:


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## csb (Sep 22, 2016)

knight1fox3 said:


> Phonetic pronunciation was a must in grad school, especially during the commencement ceremony. As an example, here was one of my colleague's names:
> 
> Sadatgoltabarestani, Seyedmehdi
> 
> Any takers on a first shot pronunciation?


Isn't this the guy from Serial?


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## MA_PE (Sep 22, 2016)




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## Road Guy (Sep 22, 2016)

I think that's racist?


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## MetsFan (Sep 22, 2016)

I don't know if my sons' names are considered unique, but they both have Spanish names.  I definitely get annoyed when people don't pronounce their names right even after pronouncing it for them.


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## csb (Sep 22, 2016)

Joo-wan and Richard-o?


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## Ble_PE (Sep 22, 2016)

My son's name is sort of a hybrid between an English name and the Spanish equivalent, so he gets it pronounced both ways. My daughter has a name that is pronounced two ways with one way being much more prevalent, but we happen to pronounce it the other way. She gets called that quite a bit, but it's not a big deal in my opinion and it doesn't seem to bother her (at least not yet). As she gets older we'll let her decide if she wants to correct someone about it.

And while we're on the weird names kick, my wife was told about a lady who named her daughter Pajama. Of course it wasn't pronounced the way you would expect, it was pronounced Pa-jemay (short a in Pa). The crazy thing was that the mom wasn't being creative, she literally saw the word pajama when shopping for clothes and thought that would be a great name for her daughter...


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## Supe (Sep 22, 2016)

Ble_PE said:


> My son's name is sort of a hybrid between an English name and the Spanish equivalent, *so he gets it pronounced both ways*. My daughter has a name that is pronounced two ways with one way being much more prevalent, but we happen to pronounce it the other way. She gets called that quite a bit, but it's not a big deal in my opinion and it doesn't seem to bother her (at least not yet). As she gets older we'll let her decide if she wants to correct someone about it.
> 
> And while we're on the weird names kick, my wife was told about a lady who named her daughter Pajama. Of course it wasn't pronounced the way you would expect, it was pronounced Pa-jemay (short a in Pa). The crazy thing was that the mom wasn't being creative, she literally saw the word pajama when shopping for clothes and thought that would be a great name for her daughter...


How hard is it really to pronounce?  Mih-nee-blee doesn't seem that difficult.


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## wilheldp_PE (Sep 22, 2016)

My nephew is in 7th grade right now, but when he was in 5th, my sister told me I had to look at his class in the yearbook.  I was bored, so why not.  I nearly pissed myself when I got to the girl named Irony.


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## Audi Driver P.E. (Sep 22, 2016)

My daughter has a friend named Selah.  Her father pronounces it "See-luh" and all her friends pronounce it "Say-luh".  It was kinda weird.  Her dad was the coach of the basketball team she and my daughter were on.  So, you had all the kids on the bench yelling for "Say-luh" and her dad yelling "See-luh". So, I took the time one day to ask her if all her friends were pronouncing her name wrong and which way did she prefer _I_ pronounce it; which one was correct? I assumed her father was right, naturally.  She said "it doesn't matter".  I said, "Ok, pick one for me."  She said, "Just call me 'Say-luh', that's what I tell all my friends to call me."


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## thekzieg (Sep 22, 2016)

I've been married for two years and I'm still not entirely sure how I'm supposed to pronounce my last name.


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## thekzieg (Sep 22, 2016)

Maybe the g is silent?


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## matt267 PE (Sep 22, 2016)

When in doubt,  don't pronounce the "g."


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## Ken PE 3.1 (Sep 22, 2016)

matt267 PE said:


> When in doubt,  don't pronounce the "g."


If I don't pronounce the "g", I'd sound like a beastie boy album.


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## Audi Driver P.E. (Sep 23, 2016)

Ken PE 3.0 said:


> If I don't pronounce the "g", I'd sound like a beastie boy album.


You say that like there is something wrong with that.


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## Ken PE 3.1 (Sep 23, 2016)

Audi driver said:


> > 14 hours ago, Ken PE 3.0 said: If I don't pronounce the "g", I'd sound like a beastie boy album.
> 
> 
> You say that like there is something wrong with that.


Not necessarily.


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## ptatohed (Sep 24, 2016)

We named our kids boring (but pronounceable) names.  Kevin, Jason, and Emily (due Oct 5th).


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## goodal (Sep 26, 2016)

I helped in the naming of my 3 spawn, but really the only thing I cared about was that we didn't call them by their middle name.  That has caused me a great deal of headache throughoutt my life.  Whatever you name them, call them by the first.


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## Audi Driver P.E. (Sep 26, 2016)

goodal said:


> I helped in the naming of my 3 spawn, but really the only thing I cared about was that we didn't call them by their middle name.  That has caused me a great deal of headache throughoutt my life.  Whatever you name them, call them by the first.


I took similar approaches to raising my kids as this, basically not making them go through the things I hated.  And now that they're much older I think that's the wrong approach.  Not only do they go through different things that cause them headaches, they go through fewer which I can't relate to at all.  If they'd had more of the same problems as me, then at least I could relate to more of their problems and seem like a real hero when I solve them.


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## willsee (Sep 26, 2016)

Boys name: Couldn't be any of my wife ex boyfriends.  My son did end up with two middle names though.  Apparently that's cool in Latin culture.

Girls name: Couldn't be mistaken for a stripper so I pronounced every name my wife picked in stripper introduction fashion "Next to the stage.....Chasity", nope.


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## snickerd3 (Sep 26, 2016)

no names that could easily be shortened.  If I am going to call you something that is your name.  Minisnick = Jake, not just a shortcut for Jacob.


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## Supe (Sep 26, 2016)

Even worse than stripper names - hippie names that double as stripper names.

Met a girl in a bar in TX once whose actual name was Glitter Rainbow.


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## MetsFan (Sep 26, 2016)

My wife had a student whose last name is Cockburn.  He was very quick to correct you if you pronounced it the "obvious" way since it is pronounced Coburn.  It's probably one of the reasons Olivia Wilde changed her last name.


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## Supe (Sep 26, 2016)

Sorry, I just don't buy "the CK is silent."


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## SNAPE/SMOTT PE (Sep 26, 2016)

I do call my kids by their shortened names, Victoria is Tori and Evelyn is Ava.


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## Road Guy (Sep 26, 2016)

so for fun my kids soccer team named themselves the "Maggots" It took most of the parents a few weeks to get used to it, but now I hear them yell "Lets Go Maggots!!" from the sidelines.....

its mostly funny to me, but the kids are enjoying their name


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## FLBuff PE (Sep 26, 2016)

And now we know how RG addressed his team the first time. "All right maggots...now listen here." You can take RG out of the military, but you can't take the military out of RG.


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## Road Guy (Sep 26, 2016)

and my maggot's are 3-0


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## akwooly (Sep 26, 2016)

i have shortened my kids names to just letters.


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## Ble_PE (Sep 26, 2016)

FLBuff PE said:


> And now we know how RG addressed his team the first time. "All right maggots...now listen here." You can take RG out of the military, but you can't take the military out of RG.


Yea, but did he pronounce it correctly?


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## matt267 PE (Sep 26, 2016)

Road Guy said:


> so for fun my kids soccer team named themselves the "Maggots" It took most of the parents a few weeks to get used to it, but now I hear them yell "Lets Go Maggots!!" from the sidelines.....
> its mostly funny to me, but the kids are enjoying their name


Are the two g's silent?


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## Road Guy (Sep 26, 2016)

Some of the kids like the French pronunciation "mag-ots"


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