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Tue, 5 Aug 1997 15:11:55 +0200 |
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Message of Mon, 4 Aug 1997 22:24:38 -0400 from LISTSERV list
owners' forum < [log in to unmask]> |
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On Mon, 4 Aug 1997 22:24:38 -0400 Stan Ryckman <[log in to unmask]>
said:
>As the "lucky owner" of a name which few can manage to both spell
>correctly and pronounce correctly,
The problem with your name is that it can be pronounced in any number of
ways based on where you come from and what transformations you (or your
ancestors) accepted in the interest of not spending the better part of
your life trying to teach people to say it "correctly". Even the much
less ambiguous "Eric" can be pronounced in several ways. My (Spanish
speaking) mother picked that name and I can assure you that the gringo
pronunciation is NOT what she had in mind :-) I gave up a long time ago,
though. And then there's "Esra", which seems completely unambiguous,
except that if you stress the 'a' it implies female gender and if you
stress the 'E' everyone will understand that you are talking about a man
(or vice-versa, I'm sure Turgut will correct me if I'm wrong). So you
just say "Hi Esra!" and everyone falls down laughing while the poor girl
fumes for no apparent reason.
>Eric, though, is at little risk.
*bzzzt* Wrong answer :-)
>Something like that isn't too "gringo-ish" I hope... and is 100% true.
>Heck, if you want, make the point that gringos invented email and were
>probably just lacking in foresight about the uses to which it might
>later evolve. But don't be *too* hard on the gringos.
The angle I would recommend is that Colombians in gringo-land may be
using gringo mail systems that unfortunately can only display the gringo
alphabet. In their interest, etc.
Eric
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