Posts by "chris"
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Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to Bart Janssen,
..and sorry about the interruption I was just off hocking muskets and spreading smallpox. But your case has made me quite interested in how ‘Lukes’ pronunciation demands are being applied in this case:
My Chinese colleague at work chooses to use Luke because he is understandably unkeen to hear us butcher the name
You mentioned you work with Chinese colleagues and so I guess my first question would be with regards to the ‘us’ referred to.
1. Has Luke made the decision that in the workplace he’d rather never hear his given name pronounced as his parents intended (as surely some other Chinese colleagues may be capable of) if it also means being subjected to nuanced pronunciation? Is it just Luke?
or
2. Is it more akin to one country two systems whereby he’s using two names in the workplace and those who are capable of pronouncing his name correctly are deemed worthy of doing so, and if so, does this “allow” list feature any non-Chinese, or is the pronunciation by non-Chinese of equal cause for disdain across the group? and if this is the case, how do conversations run when he’s referred to in the third person? Or is it just Luke?
3. How are second-language and even native English speaking staff pronouncing your name Bart, have you ever felt your name being butchered to such an extent that you’ve informed them that their pronunciation is so far removed from your parent’s model that you’ve insisted on an alternative handle. And similarly, how many of your colleagues made these stipulations? Or is it just Luke?
Sorry if those questions are a bit of a handful, call it curiosity. I’m subjected to mispronunciation of my name on a daily basis but I’ve never been offended when effort is made let alone reached the point where I’ve decided that certain peoples’ pronunciation is so abjectly poor that they no longer be permitted to even attempt my name and must be relegated to addressing me by an assumed name.
Likewise my wife, reading your post stumbled on:
check that white privilege a notch or two
And quite passionately exclaimed that its nothing to do with white, black or yellow. And I’m inclined to agree; skin hue would seem to play a limited role in one’s ability to enunciate. For her part, She said she’d far rather people use her inherited given game, mispronounced or not, than be pressured to assume one of these dumbed-down Anglicized appropriations, because that’s her name. I can see her point.
But back to work, I’ve never met any of my colleagues, we are located worldwide and our names reflect this. Working online also means we never speak, we merely type and read. Except for the Chinese staff in our company i assume everyone else is using their given name. With regards to my Chinese colleagues I’ve made numerous inquiries as to who I’m actually working with and why they refuse to provide their real names, and furthermore I’ve inquired as to how this idiosyncrasy benefits teachers who are required to pronounce student names from myriad languages as a matter of course. I have thus far (one year later) received no response from our manager.
His name is Neo.
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Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to Bart Janssen,
he is understandably unkeen to hear us butcher the name his parents gave him.
It’s an interesting one Bart, I wonder how he feels about native speakers of other official Chinese languages and dialects butchering the name his parents gave him and whether he requires ‘Luke’ from them too or if it’s just your *white priviledge* ;).
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Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Which confuses me, following Russell’s link
She’s attached to Wilson McKay, where she specialises in “asset protection planning and taxation trusts and wills”.
I think I satisfied myself that the Julia Xu at Wilson McKay was for some reason named Julia (Zhu) Xu, perhaps I got confused with an actor, I deleted my history and come seem to find the page. Certainly it would seem that the Julia Xu at Wilson McKay:
holds a Master of Common Law degree in Australia, was admitted to the bar in 2008 in New Zealand and has worked specialising in asset protection planning and taxation trusts and wills.
But your link Sofia refers to a Julia Jiyan Xu, who:
holds an undergraduate degree in biology and an MBA from Cornell University.
and who on
June 24, 2011, ReneSola Ltd today announced that its chief financial officer, Ms. Julia Xu, will resign from the Company to pursue other career interests.
So we may have mixed up our Julia Xus
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Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Firstly Craig, what a mean spirited and somewhat misguided response.
On a personal level, my privilege would be having lived in China for a decade and being quite capable of pronouncing the limited array of names in use and still constantly encountering people introducing themselves to me using fake names specifically because of the tone of my skin or the size of my nose, that is in between complete strangers calling out “foreigner” or what have you every time I step outside.
If someone mispronounces my name, I’m not offended, they made an effort, I’ll correct if need be. People rarely tend to be offended by genuine mistakes, even you.It’s cases such as Paul Henry's mocking of Sheila Dikshit that are likely to cause offence.
Your privilege Craig is being part of this western group, whom the Chinese education system and socialisation have portrayed as too vocally retarded to pronounce their names correctly. You seem ramped to confirm that, and going from what you’ve written above, rather than gaining more exposure to these sounds in order to assimilate and allow for greater integration in this globalized world, you’d prefer to perpetuate your *white privilege*, insinuating that mispronunciation is inevitable. Given you work in the media, that’s troubling.
Answer me this Craig, who’s the mayor of Gisborne?
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Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to Russell Brown,
That is excellent work. I recall reading Chris’s post at the time, but when I scrolled down the page to your translated list beneath my brain prolapsed ;) – too much list.
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Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to Paul Campbell,
I was going to cast around for maybe some slightly meaningful alternative
You might get more of the cutesy novelty love that way. I may not be best person to ask, personally I no longer accept anyone calling me by anything other than the standard western pronunciation of my name, because that’s what it is and everyone’s heard of Christmas.
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Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to Paul Campbell,
“毛面鹬鸵”
Hehe!
Personally I’d just go with Paul Campbell, But traditionally Paul is 保罗 Bǎoluó (which would suffice for interactions), and I think Campbell would be 坎贝尔 Kǎnbèi’ěr.
And yes, I teach students from all over the world, UAE, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Thailand, Indonesia, Germany, France, Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Mexico, Korea, Jordan, Greece, Taiwan…
It’s pretty much only the Chinese who are using these fake names with any frequency where I work.
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Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to "chris",
And in case anyone’s still unsure as to exactly where Oravida are coming from: Pictured Gilligan Shepard’s Yi Ping Ge – Partner, Adrian Burke – Accountant, Richard Ashby – Partner, Colin Tuson – Accountant, Marion Garlick – Director.
http://www.gilshep.co.nz/meet-team-pc-25.html -
Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to Paul Campbell,
100% of Oravida is owned by Kauri NZ investments which has one director Stone Shi. 98% of Kauri is owned by Kauri NZ Trustee Ltd which has one director Devi Shi.100% of Kauri NZ Trustee Ltd is owned by Gilligan Shepard Nominees Ltd which has 3 directors Richard Ashby/Greg Rathbun/Bruce Sheppard. 100% of Gilligan Shepard Nominees Ltd is jointly owned by Greg Rathbun/Bruce Sheppard
Incidentally, and this is a pet gripe, I’m a little tired of Chinese giving me these phoney names on the pretext that I wouldn’t be able to pronounce their Chinese name. Sure, it’s Chinese policy to tell people what they can and can’t do with their mouths, but if we can get our laughing gears around Hu Jin Tao, or Xi Jin Ping then the words are our oyster. One of the strengths of English as a language is that it can accommodate and has through exposure assimilated countless languages without necessarily resorting to approximations within a limited tonal framework as is the case in Chinese. In matters of politics, business and the law, it’s helpful if individuals are referred to by just the one name.
Case in point right here, Stone Shi and Deyi (not Devi) Shi are the same person and this use of alt names screams neither transparency nor accountability. as with Bill Liu, AKA Biao Liu. Julia Xu AKA Zhu Xu..
Having said that, I don’t expect anyone to change their name for me, or stick to using one name because I said so, I simply don’t trust any of these two-faced pseudonym wearers. because.
Mr De Yi “Stone” Shi’s sirname written in Chinese is 石 ‘Stone’, this fulla has seen fit to essentially call himself “Stone Stone” across languages. What it lacks in creativity it more than makes up for in in in repetitiveness. But what is the reasoning behind this, is De Yi, “Duh-Yi” beyond the dexterity of our vocal faculties, No sirree, you can try this at home, or call our toll free number.
When I start my multinational flimflam company, will our prospectus read
“Flimflam NZ investments which has one director Bearer of Christ [redacted]. 98% of FlimFlam is owned by FlimFlim NZ Trustee Ltd which has one director Chris [redacted].</q>I think not.
Best wishes
M. Taslov
Opotiki -
Capture: Two Tone, in reply to JacksonP,
I just save as jpg out of Photoshop, after resizing to about 1000 to 1200 width or height max. This seems to create images about 400 to 500k, which works pretty well here. If I’m exporting from iPhoto, same image size with Quality high, Custom size as above. Hope that helps.
Yeah, that does, thank you so much, I realised after I’d posted that I’d asked you before, but my memory these days… I’ll bookmark it this time!
