"When I was in 2nd grade, my teacher couldn't pronounce my name because it was too hard. She said, "I'm just going to call you Haj." Unfortunately that nickname stuck, and since then I've grown a complex about being called my full name. I tell people when introducing myself, "My father did not come to this country for someone like you to mispronounce my name." Pretty dramatic, and most people get offended, but I mean it.
This got me really interested in how people form sounds with their mouths, and what causes some people to be completely incapable of pronouncing mine and others' names. Try this for me: make the sound 'v' and pay attention to where your tongue, teeth, and lips are. Now make the sound 'w.' If you switch quickly between the two, you'll notice it's just the placement of the top lip on your bottom teeth that makes the difference. However, for years, my siblings and I would make fun of my mother for telling us to "get in the wan" or to "wacuum your room." [Try the same thing with the 'R' and 'L' sounds. Hopefully it will give you more understanding on some people's mispronunciations.]
I think that's all it comes down to. We can work to understand each other, even when it is not easy for us. My name is no harder to pronounce than many English names. By the way, it's HA-ji-ra, not ha-JEE-ra. I'd like to turn to the words from an interview with Nigerian actress Uzoamaka Aduba:
"I went home and asked my mother if I could be called Zoe. I remember she was cooking, and in her Nigerian accent she said, 'Why?' I said, 'Nobody can pronounce it.' Without missing a beat, she said, 'If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky and Michelangelo and Dostoyevsky, they can learn to say Uzoamaka.'"
This photo was taken in the Warehouse District of Peoria, IL, by the lovely and talented Miranda C. Thank you to her, and thank you to MM for providing a platform for minority students to express themselves."
This got me really interested in how people form sounds with their mouths, and what causes some people to be completely incapable of pronouncing mine and others' names. Try this for me: make the sound 'v' and pay attention to where your tongue, teeth, and lips are. Now make the sound 'w.' If you switch quickly between the two, you'll notice it's just the placement of the top lip on your bottom teeth that makes the difference. However, for years, my siblings and I would make fun of my mother for telling us to "get in the wan" or to "wacuum your room." [Try the same thing with the 'R' and 'L' sounds. Hopefully it will give you more understanding on some people's mispronunciations.]
I think that's all it comes down to. We can work to understand each other, even when it is not easy for us. My name is no harder to pronounce than many English names. By the way, it's HA-ji-ra, not ha-JEE-ra. I'd like to turn to the words from an interview with Nigerian actress Uzoamaka Aduba:
"I went home and asked my mother if I could be called Zoe. I remember she was cooking, and in her Nigerian accent she said, 'Why?' I said, 'Nobody can pronounce it.' Without missing a beat, she said, 'If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky and Michelangelo and Dostoyevsky, they can learn to say Uzoamaka.'"
This photo was taken in the Warehouse District of Peoria, IL, by the lovely and talented Miranda C. Thank you to her, and thank you to MM for providing a platform for minority students to express themselves."
