# Mispronouncing Names



## ronanpoirier

Well... I have noticed that mostly people on TV don't know how to pronounce names from other languages... now with Soccer World Cup I hear a lot those kind of stuff... I don't think that EVERYBODY has to know how to speak a language but I think that, at least, reporters should. They don't need to KNOW that language but knowing how to pronounce its words should be good... at least from the main ones... 

So, what are your opinions?


P.S.: It was funny, somedays ago I was watching TV about this Duke (or whatever) from Germany (it was saying he was such a great lier) and the reporter kept getting his name wrong and the lady kept correcting him and throughout the interview he kept saying it wrong and the lady kept correcting him...  And it wasn't that hard


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## danielfranco

Well, yeah, when the names are easy like Jones, Kurt, Han, Sudo, Lenin, erm... never mind him... ah, Paz, etc., then they have no excuse. But when the last name is an unusual combination of letters or when it's not pronounced phonetically, then that's when the silliness begins, I think. Personally, I have lots of trouble pronouncing some names in English when I read them. If someone comes along and tells me how to say it, I can (mostly) say it right. On the other hand, when someone says a name in English and I'm supposed to write it, sometimes I can't even begin to guess!!


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## Krümelmonster

I think you are talking about "Baron Münchhausen"...

The GP and Superbike races are broadcasted in English around here and that's sooo funny... Theres some rider called Smrz, who is always pronounced "Schmerz" by the moderator... or do you know "Hor Hey Lorenzo" (Jorge) 
On the other hand they do it right in films, while in Spain I almost died laughing when watching "Anatomia", a German film set in "Tu - Bin - Chen" (Tübingen) and "Cheidelberg" (Heidelberg). They really had a hard time on running through a huge building shouting "Gretchen" one hundred times 

Here in Germany we're usually quite good at names, but there are some names or titles that just always cause confusion, for example Halle Berry (Hail, Hallee...?), Tomb Raider (often pronounced in a German way), or Ruben Xaus (Ksaus, Tschaus, Schaus, Chaus...) 
After hearing 20 different versions you get rather confused about the correct way


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## lizzeymac

You should hear the American TV newscasters - the World Cup is killing them!  A few of them get this panicked look on their faces just before they try to say the names.

Most of the better American sportscasters can manage the names if they are speaking slowly.
They can manage Spanish names, they tend to flatten out Brazilian names.   The German, Swedish, Polish, Serbian/Montenegrin & African nations - it will not be pretty.  
I can only hope the newscasters are practicing their pronunciation between  games.

The Trinidad & Tobago vs Sweden match was very funny - I mean, even I know how to pronounce Shaka Hislop.


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## linguist786

Even I didn't know how to pronounce the croatian player's name yesterday (Srna, or something?)

Anyway, my name comes from Arabic (Mohammed), but unfortunately, has been transcribed wrongly into Roman letters (in my opinion, anyway) English people here always call me "Moe - haa - midd" although, strictly speaking, it should be the Arabic way: "Mu - ham - madd".
It's my parents' fault for spelling it wrongly! It should be spelt Muhammad. I'm used to it though - it'd be strange if i started correcting people now.


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## fenixpollo

ronanpoirier said:
			
		

> They don't need to KNOW that language but knowing how to pronounce its words should be good... at least from the main ones...


  There are nearly 30 different languages represented by the world cup teams, and at least two or three times the number of ethnic groups where the players' names originate.  How's a person supposed to be familiar with the phonetic rules of all of those languages?  

Also, some names have different pronunciations depending on how the person pronounces his/her own name.  See this related thread.

While I agree that reporters/announcers should show respect for a person, his name and his culture by pronouncing his name correctly; it's a much harder thing to do in practice.


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## Bettie

I am watching the games in the spanish spoken channel, and I think that because these guys are watching soccer not just for the World Cup, but all year they already know (or at least they think they know) how to pronounce the names, because the already know the players at least the ones who play in Europe, America and Latin America, so they don't seem to have any problem with the names.


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## natasha2000

linguist786 said:
			
		

> Even I didn't know how to pronounce the croatian player's name yesterday (Srna, or something?)
> 
> Anyway, my name comes from Arabic (Mohammed), but unfortunately, has been transcribed wrongly into Roman letters (in my opinion, anyway) English people here always call me "Moe - haa - midd" although, strictly speaking, it should be the Arabic way: "Mu - ham - madd".
> It's my parents' fault for spelling it wrongly! It should be spelt Muhammad. I'm used to it though - it'd be strange if i started correcting people now.


 
Well, Muhamed is how a Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian speaker would call you. Furthermore, I think there are some Bosnian people called Muhamed.

My name is very difficult for Spanish people. It should be pronounced Natasha, with the accent on the first A - N*A*tasha - but I am almost always called Nat*A*cha! Catalans write my name with X, and I kind of like it, at least it helps them to pronounce SH as it should be pronounced...

But there are some Serbian names which are impossible to be pronounced by Spanish people, like Snežana, which basicaly means Snowhite (yes, like a fairy tail with seven dwarfs)... SN is impossible to pronounce for them , so every Snežana who comes here gets a new name - Blanca.

I think Spanish people are especially hard to pronounce foreign names as thez are pronounced in the original. At the beginning, I was always the "stupid one" because i couldn't recognize a single singer, group or actor when it was talked about them. Marlene Dietrich is read exactly as it is written: D-I-E-T-R-I-CH, where CH is spanish CH as in China. 
Now I am ok with this and i know that if I do not recognize something, it does not necessarily mean that it is unknown for me... I just have more patience to discover who is it about...


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## natasha2000

Bettie said:
			
		

> I am watching the games in the spanish spoken channel, and I think that because these guys are watching soccer not just for the World Cup, but all year they already know (or at least they think they know) how to pronounce the names, because the already know the players at least the ones who play in Europe, America and Latin America, so they don't seem to have any problem with the names.


 
Well it must be Mexico, my dear...


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## Bettie

natasha2000 said:
			
		

> Well it must be Mexico, my dear...


 
Well, they are from Latin America, jaja... But as I was saying, they might saying them wrong but it seems so effortless that sounds ok, jaja.

I am going off topic, but why Spaniards say aletas instead of aTletas??


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## natasha2000

Bettie said:
			
		

> Well, they are from Latin America, jaja... But as I was saying, they might saying them wrong but it seems so effortless that sounds ok, jaja.
> 
> I am going off topic, but why Spaniards say aletas instead of aTletas??


 
well, in order not to go off topic, I sent you a PM...


I remembered another one: Lucky Strike... When I was in Malaga, the shop keeper in tobacco shop didn't understand me when I asked for Lucky Strike, pronouncing it as it is pronounced in English... I had to point it out with my finger, and then he said: "Ah! L-U-K-I S-T-R-U-K!  Ok, I can figuer it out how he got this Luki, but how on Earth did he get this STRUK?


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## Bettie

I remember a teacher telling us to watch the movie Benur and all of us were   OOohhh Ben Hur!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## diegodbs

Everybody in Spain says "Benur" and not "Ben Hur".


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## Bettie

Really?? In Mexico new generations say Ben Jun and and older people say Benur, and it's like that with a lot of things and names.


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## diegodbs

Children, young people and our grandparents, all of them/us say "Benur".


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## panjabigator

In English, we say Ben Hur, although I recognized what you meant immediately when I read Benur...I do not know about Ben Jun though.


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## Mariaguadalupe

I know for a fact that both major mexican TV companies have spent the last couple of years in Germany just preparing for the world cup (one of them, sent one of their reporters to Germany right after the Olympics in Greece).  They sent an advance crew just so that they had their facts checked and doublechecked.  Little things like names are some of the things they were looking to have covered.


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## emma42

I am now fairly proficient at pronouncing Pakistani names, as there were lots of Pakistani heritage children at a school in which I worked.  I had just started there and I addressed a question to a little boy called Abdurachman (sorry if spelling is wrong).  He couldn't believe I was able to pronounce his name!  I really enjoyed saying it, actually.


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## panjabigator

Most South Asians are used to having their names mutilated....so you'd be suprised how nice it feels to hear a non-South Asian pronounce it correctly!


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## Henryk

> Here in Germany we're usually quite good at names, but there are some names or titles that just always cause confusion, for example Halle Berry (Hail, Hallee...?), Tomb Raider (often pronounced in a German way), or Ruben Xaus (Ksaus, Tschaus, Schaus, Chaus...)


Our football commentators are so bad at pronouncing the names of foreign players. For example Dado Prso. His name is a legend as it's pronounced differently on every channel. I myself heard about 5 versions but I don't know which the right one is.

@romanpoirier
Do you mean him?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arno_Funke


As for my name it is very often mispronounced. Everybody automatically adds a "d" to my name.


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## ronanpoirier

Bettie said:
			
		

> I am watching the games in the spanish spoken channel, and I think that because these guys are watching soccer not just for the World Cup, but all year they already know (or at least they think they know) how to pronounce the names, because the already know the players at least the ones who play in Europe, America and Latin America, so they don't seem to have any problem with the names.



Nice to know...

But I think that TV networks have money, so just pay an expert in languages to teach them how to pronounce the names! Like, before each game, the guy teaches them and that's it! And everybody is happy  

Ya, I know that sometimes it is hard to figure out what language is it, what language is that...  because sometimes the player is native from that country but his parents are not, so its last name may be mispronounced even in the country he lives


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## daoxunchang

emma42 said:
			
		

> I am now fairly proficient at pronouncing Pakistani names, as there were lots of Pakistani heritage children at a school in which I worked. I had just started there and I addressed a question to a little boy called Abdurachman (sorry if spelling is wrong). He couldn't believe I was able to pronounce his name! I really enjoyed saying it, actually.


 
Well, I am wondering whether emma can pronounce a Chinese name correctly. I know sometimes some Chinese choose not to be called by their native name but by an English name, because some mispronunciations make us feel very uncomfortable.
P.S. I'm really envious that so many compatriots of yours have the chance to have their names mispronounced, while our players ................


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## Krümelmonster

Yesterday in the match against Polska the commentator talked about one player called "Smolarek". He pronounced it "SMOLarek", and then said sorry to the native speakers, he knew that was not the correct way (SmolArek), but he wanted to stick to the way it was always pronounced in the "Bundesliga" so he wouldn't confuse the viewers


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## frog girl

My name is usually mispronounced by lots of people. Although it is very easy and "flexible". It can be pronounced perfectly well in German, Spanish, English, French, Italian... Nevertheless, most Spanish-speakers tend to put an accent on the final "e" (which I hate  ). 
I have a brazilian friend whose name is Nívea, but most people pronounce it like the brand.  
¿Wouldn't it be much easier for commentators tu just refer to the players by their jersey numbers? I remember there used to be a commentator in Guatemala who used to call Klinsmann "Chilíns-maaan".  
Most of the people here in Guatemala (whether they work for television or not) tend to pronounce anything foreign as they think they would in English. I say think, because most people have very poor English and try to pronounce the American way. So usually, whether it's a name or place, you don't understand half of what they are saying. 
But I do agree that people who work in the media should have some additional training for pronouncing foreign words and names.


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## Bettie

Mariaguadalupe said:
			
		

> I know for a fact that both major mexican TV companies have spent the last couple of years in Germany just preparing for the world cup (one of them, sent one of their reporters to Germany right after the Olympics in Greece). They sent an advance crew just so that they had their facts checked and doublechecked. Little things like names are some of the things they were looking to have covered.


 
I really miss the night shows about the World Cup... yeah, the competition between that two networks is very strong so they covered a lot of details and pronunciation has to be one of them, and I am sure they play a lot with that (at least the comedians, hehe).


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## macta123

Yes even French names can be quite difficult for English speaker

for eg. M. Saunière. is pronounced like (Soniye) or can even confused with name like  "Sonia".


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## moirag

Some Spanish jewels...that well known film "Tom Rider", starring Angelina Jolie,or do you know who Clean Eesgoo is? Think spaghetti western/Dirty Harry etc. I can see why they say Iron Fleming wrote the James Bond books, and I can certainly understand why they talk about Seen Connery - but why, then, do they say Shorn Penn correctly? Would you understand - I didn´t - I´m going to buy a Forres Cor? It´s a model of car. Maybe what the Spanish do best with foreign names is what they do with the British royal family....el Príncipe Carlos and la Reina Isabel (apparently that´s Elizabeth in Spanish)...oh, and don´t forget Lady Dee!


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## Hakro

There are thousands or milions of stories about misspelling names. They are a bit different in every language but not much...

In Finland, I know that the radio and TV news speakers check the pronouncing of the names every time. Instead, the music program speakers can pronounce only the English names right and most of the sports reporters have no idea how to pronounce a foreign name whatever the language is (and they don't seem to care about it). Sometimes I'm really ashamed of them, but fortunately there are not so many foreigners who listen to them.

The problem is, of course, international and global. It's a problem about the people who are in an important position but who don't care. As a journalist I feel ashamed of my colleagues.


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## beakman

moirag said:
			
		

> Some Spanish jewels...that well known film "Tom Rider", starring Angelina Jolie,or do you know who Clean Eesgoo is? Think spaghetti western/Dirty Harry etc. I can see why they say Iron Fleming wrote the James Bond books, and I can certainly understand why they talk about Seen Connery - but why, then, do they say Shorn Penn correctly? Would you understand - I didn´t - I´m going to buy a Forres Cor? It´s a model of car. Maybe what the Spanish do best with foreign names is what they do with the British royal family....el Príncipe Carlos and la Reina Isabel (apparently that´s Elizabeth in Spanish)...oh, and don´t forget Lady Dee!


Hi, everybody!
In Spain, they don't bother to learn how the names should be pronounced correctly. I was shocked when for the first time I heard "Alejandro Dúmas" whith a stress on the letter "u" and "s" pronounced.
Generally, they mispronounce French, English and Russian names. For instance, they stress Russian surnames on the last syllable as it was some general Russian rule (there's no any).
Regards!
(Correct me, please, if there are spelling mistakes. Thank you.)


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## Outsider

What baffles me is how some reporters get easy names wrong. In Portugal, I hear the word "Apple" pronounced "Aple" (rhyming with "maple"), when it would seem that the correct pronunciation would come more natural to a Portuguese speaker. Go figure!


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## Lucyernaga

It's difficult to get a foreign name well pronounced, because of the phonetic combinations that change from language to language. 

I remember a journalist explained in TV that as a rule they pronounce the foreign names as they read it in their mother language. Otherwise, they "study" how to pronounce the names.

Althought I agree that so many names are difficult to remember, we must remember that sports *journalists get paid for providing good and quality information*.


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## cyanista

I have already put up with the fact that every German I meet will get my last name wrong no matter how often I repeat it. The name is actually simple but the way it's stressed is somehow uncomfortable for a German ear. Everyone who repeats my name shifts the stress from the second to the third syllable. I actually started to pronounce it that way myself - it saves time and energy.


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## tomayto tomahto

I can't resist contributing the most heinous mispronunciations I have ever heard:  (hehe)

Jacques......"JAY-Kweeze"
Pepe......"Peep"   
Sophocles...."So-FOLK-lze"

I also knew a Lebanese man named Raja (pronounced "RAH-zha"). Not terribly difficult for an English speaker, if you ask me. After he pronounced it for a woman who had just met him, she said, "Oh, that's too difficult.  May I call you Roger?"

And for those of you familiar with the legendary Boston accent (_r's _are dropped, as in "Pahk yaw cah.") :

A boy I thought was named "Ali" turned out to be " R. Lee"

A woman once confused me terribly by walking up to me and saying, "I'm glad I found you.  I'm looking for a Nazi person."  I was totally baffled; finally I decided to say, "But I'm not a Nazi."  Then SHE was confused.  Ultimately I realized she was looking for "an artsy person". (I'm an artist.)


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