Sunday, December 21, 2008

a rose by any other name...

one of my favorite shows is that seventies show. i always wondered what fez's real name was. i think i had missed the episode when he came to town , told everyone what his name was and then everyone decided to call him fez because no one could pronounce his real name. i can relate.
when i came to new york i found it really funny how people pronounce certain letters and insist that this is the proper way. the new york way isnt the proper way. newscasters always affect a midwestern accent because its easier to understand thank you very much.
when i first heard the last name kaufman pronounced 'cow f man' instead of 'cough man' i was really glad that kaufman isnt my last name. i realize that 'cow f man ' is the german pronunciation and is probably the "proper " pronunciation , but it just sounds so awful . and who wants to have a last name that has the word cow in it if its not necessary?
on 90210 the andrea character wanted her name pronounced 'ahndrea' instead of 'and rea'. and she was lucky because both are easily pronounced by her fellow californians. but what do u do when the pronunciation of your name is really difficult for the inhabitants of your new city to pronounce? what then? what happens when the way they pronounce your name sounds like nails on a chalk board? then what do u do? what do u do when they insist the way they say your name is the way it should be said? EXCUSE ME!! are you inferring that i dont know how to pronounce my own name, you of little intellect? i of course offer alternative pronunciations that arent as abhorrent to my ears. most people are cooperative. some arent. which is quite rude.
i really feel for those who have foreign names that no one can properly pronounce. thats even worse. at least some people are able to pronounce my name the way i like to hear it said.

6 comments:

SuperRaizy said...

I think they call him Fes because it stands for Foreign Exchange Student.

nameless, faceless said...

You know, you don't ever actually get to hear Fez's name in that episode - everytime he moves his lips to say it, there's some huge random noise in the background (rooster, car horn type of thing) that obscures it.

Hysterical show, though.

NotaGeek! said...
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NotaGeek! said...

Where I live in NY.... With a Yiddish accent it's pronounced cough man, and with a with an English accent cow f man...

You could have worse than a cow in your name like an elephant or something degrading like ausfresser....

Names you can always change character is a lot harder.....

Sorry to go off topic..

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I know exactly what you mean! Some words are just pronounced differently up there, like "parallel". On the other hand, some of my neighbors sound like Reba Mcintire!

When I was in ny people were pronouncing my name as "KEE-dy" when it's really "KAY-dee". lol