I'm sorry you have trouble pronouncing my name.

[Ben Kenobi]

But for a lawmaker to come in and say "You're going to have to change your name because we can't pronounce your culture's language" is pretty insensitive, even in nations like Thailand and Indonesia, which have historically erased Chinese surnames and instead substituted local names.

Difference being that the Chinese in those countries have been there for quite some time. I really can't see the point of complaining when you are a first generation immigrant.

Say I were to immigrate to China. I have two choices. I can ***** and moan about how no one really understands my English name, or I can try to come up with a chinese equivalent that works for everyone else. People who choose to keep their own name, that's fine, but people are going to mangle it when it uses a phrase that's not obvious in English. This applies to many other languages, pretty much everyone with a foreign name.

Like it or not, America uses English as a common language. I think that it is the common courtesy to assimilate into American culture if you wish to go there and live, and start a new life.

[DirtyMartini]

Ben,

What makes you think she's referring to first generation immigrants only?

[MrFun]

He assumes a lot of things in debates and many of those assumptions are seriously mistakened.

[Ben Kenobi]

What makes you think she's referring to first generation immigrants only?

That's a good point. She does say asian-descent.

If so, she's crossed a huge line. These are American citizens. It is one thing to insist upon folks making the decision to come to America to be grateful for their opportunity, but these are Americans, and they have rights to which they are entitled.

If she's complaining about the system, fix the system so that it can recognise these characters properly.

[Kuciwalker]

Part of the problem here ridiculous transliteration rules in the first place. WTF is it spelled 'nguyen'?

[chequita guevara]

Weirdass anecdote: A Thai friend of mine said her family name was originally "He" (as in "river" in Chinese), but the Thai gov't forced them to change it to "Uawithya", pronounced "Oowa-witty-ah". Apparently "He" was just too hard to pronounce.

Not so weird. Many countries force ethnic minorities to adopt local names. Turkey, up until recently, forced Kurds to take Turkish names. In the eighties, Bulgarians were forcing Turks to take Bulgarian names. I don't know who was messing with the Bulgarians . . . probably the Greeks.

[chequita guevara]

BTW, I've seen both Nuguyen and Nguyen.

[SlowwHand]

My heart doctor is Dr. Nguyen. Nuguyen must be a misspelling of Nugog, like in another thread.

[chequita guevara]

I've seen Smith and Smythe. It doesn't mean one is misspelled.

[Kidlicious]

Gay Focker is definitely mispelled.

[Nugog]

Nuguyen must be a misspelling of Nugog, like in another thread.

[MOBIUS]

Ironic your being a racist calling Texans Racist

Christ, I hardly see how I can be racist calling Texans racist - I know your average Texan is an arrogant scumbag son of a *****, but for them to think they are their own race is a bit rich even for them...

[Q Classic]

As you pointed out, the person she was talking to was Chinese, and it that light your objections in this particular paragraph are you being overly sensative.

The problem with that is that she seemed to be using "Chinese" as shorthand for "Asian".

She was talking ot the chairmen of a citizens action group, the characterization "your citizens" simply means the ones that particular group leader was representing.

And here, I think I'm perfectly justified by feeling a bit irked. "You and your citizens" is maybe half a step above "you and your kind". The only times I've heard "you and your kind", it's always been followed by something nasty and unpleasant.

[Q Classic]

And christ ****ing almighty, is the humor about the name part not getting through? I think what she said was ****ing dumb. Am I offended by it? Not really.

I am, however, more offended by that "you and your citizens" bit, because that's what suggests to me that she views Asians as somehow not American. It's why I ****ing refer to "our" and "America" so many goddamn times in the OP. I mean, ****, I even admit that the whole name thing is just silly fluff.

Seriously, maybe the point would have come across easier if I'd clipped everything except for those last two paragraphs, even if the point those were trying to make derive from the careless, ignorant attitude from the whole "names" and "Chinese" comments.

(Linguistic note: it's also a Korean tendency to use the pronoun for "our" instead of "my" when referring to certain things: "uri nara" == "our country", "uri eomma" == my (lit., our) mother)...

[Q Classic]

Q, is Marquis your only first name?

It's the one on my birth certificate, yes. My mother wanted a good American name, but took her cues from an old dictionary. It was either "Marquis" or "Marshall", neither of which are common American names. The latter would have been easier to pronounce.

I do have a baptismal and a confirmational name, again, both Western, as well as a Korean middle name which is what my family uses when speaking with me.