{"id":146969,"date":"2018-06-27T01:38:17","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T01:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/dont-say-my-name-wrong-at-graduation\/"},"modified":"2018-06-27T01:38:17","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T01:38:17","slug":"dont-say-my-name-wrong-at-graduation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/dont-say-my-name-wrong-at-graduation\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Don’t say my name wrong at graduation’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Graduation\"Image copyright Getty Images <\/figure>\n

We've all had that social trauma of the name that looks ominously tricky to pronounce.<\/p>\n

You're at some event and you've got to introduce someone - or you're trying to read from a name badge - and there's that rising tide of embarrassment as you head into a thick forest of consonants.<\/p>\n

You have a few goes at it, like a nervous horse taking a jump at a big fence, before giving up in a welter of apologies.<\/p>\n

Imagine how much worse that would be if there were thousands of people watching and mispronouncing a name could ruin someone's day.<\/p>\n

That's the nightmare facing universities in these weeks as they hold graduation ceremonies - with each student having their name read out as they stride across the stage.<\/p>\n

Frozen grin<\/h2>\n

There are halls crowded with proud families, recording each moment on their mobile phones - and the great fear is that the name sounds nothing like it should.<\/p>\n

"It can go really badly wrong - and you feel for the parents who might have travelled thousands of miles. You can see their smiles turning to a frozen grin," says Paul Greatrix, registrar at the University of Nottingham.<\/p>\n

Image caption All the pomp and ceremony can be ruined by a misplaced pronunciation <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If people trip over they might be given another chance to walk across the stage, to save their blushes.<\/p>\n

But if the pronunciation of the name goes wrong, "there's no escape, the cock-up is there until the end of time," he says.<\/p>\n

As universities become more diverse places it becomes an even greater challenge - with names from China, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Europe and South America.<\/p>\n

Mr Greatrix says universities have been developing their own approaches to preventing mistakes.<\/p>\n

Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption And this is... the awkwardness about names is worse on the big stage <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

"They might get in touch with people to ask how they want their names pronounced," he says. That gives the announcer time to rehearse any unfamiliar names.<\/p>\n

"Some institutions might get a linguist," he says or a native speaker, if there is uncertainty about the pronunciation of names from a particular language or culture.<\/p>\n

Mr Greatrix, who is a contributing editor to the Wonkhe higher education website, says graduations are great optimistic events.<\/p>\n

But he says there are nagging worries for anyone involved that it might be spoilt by a horribly wrong pronunciation.<\/p>\n

Record your name in advance<\/h2>\n

Even with names that are not ostensibly difficult there can be problems.<\/p>\n

A mistake at Butler University in Indiana in US has been widely shared this summer. It was a classic case of mixing up the first letter of a first name with the first letter of the surname - made trickier when the name was "Julie Kirkhoff".<\/p>\n

"Forgive me! 'Kirkhoff'," said the announcer, in case anyone had missed it.<\/p>\n

Image Copyright @smileyradioshow @smileyradioshow Report<\/a><\/noindex> <\/figure>\n
\"TwitterImage Copyright @smileyradioshow @smileyradioshow Report<\/a><\/noindex> <\/figure>\n

There have been efforts to use technology to minimise the risk of getting names wrong.<\/p>\n

Graduates from Stanford University in California have developed a system called Name Coach, which is used by more than 100 institutions in the US - and also some in the UK.<\/p>\n

This has been built to avoid names being "mangled" at graduations. Students are invited to make a recording of their name into a website, which is then rendered into a phonetic form. <\/p>\n

This allows the announcer to look through the names coming up and listen to how it should sound and then read a syllable-by-syllable pronunciation.<\/p>\n

The example given is Oluwarotimi Adesina - which it renders as O-loo-wa-RO-tee-me Uh-DESH-i-na.<\/p>\n

There is also an option for students to specify their preferred gender pronoun.<\/p>\n

Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Graduation should be a time for celebration rather than irritation <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It means that the announcer on stage can have as much information as possible to avoid a name-related car crash.<\/p>\n

Cultural identity<\/h2>\n

Princeton University in New Jersey adopted this online recording system this year, saying in particular it would help to "recognise the diversity of its student population".<\/p>\n

You only have to take a skim through social media to see how much it matters when it goes wrong.<\/p>\n

From the students themselves, many of the reactions are angry and unrepeatable, with great offence being taken about an incorrect pronunciation.<\/p>\n

It can feel like a slight against someone's cultural identity as well as undermining their big moment.<\/p>\n

From the parents, there is a lot of passive aggressive irritation, from people who have waited to hear their child's name read out, only to hear a rather dodgy approximation. <\/p>\n

Graduations have become big symbolic rites of passage for families, and getting the name wrong touches a particularly raw nerve.<\/p>\n

More from Global education<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Is Sara a "refugee" or a "future surgeon"?<\/li>\n
  • Hidden writing in ancient desert monastery manuscripts<\/li>\n
  • 10 things about Harvard graduates: Liberals, virgins and iPhones<\/li>\n
  • Hotter years mean worse exam results<\/li>\n
  • Turning Colombia's unemployed illiterate ex-fighters into workers<\/li>\n
  • Gordon Brown launches $10bn global school fund<\/li>\n
  • London ranked top city for students<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The editor of Global education is sean.coughlan@bbc.co.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Image copyright Getty Images We've all had that social trauma of the name that looks ominously tricky to pronounce. You're at some event and you've got to introduce someone -<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":146970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}