Chris Walsh (chris_walsh) wrote,
Chris Walsh
chris_walsh

I dub thee Aces At Names (or, Mispronunciation Madness)

Just as I'm lucky enough to only rarely have nightmares, I also only rarely have anxiety dreams, and when they happen, like last night, they're usually mild. I was more bemused that the amxiety expressed itself this way: me at work, suddenly realizing that I'd been mispronouncing my boss's name. A name I first learned over two years ago, when I first interviewed at my current company. A name I've been very good at correctly pronouncing, and correcting people on when they mispronounce it, because it's easy to mispronounce but,

as I always remember,

Getting Names Correct Is A Sign Of Respect.

I still remember my fourth-grade annoyance at someone managing to mangle the name "Walsh" -- a teacher visiting my school for an event was reading off our names and somehow made my last name into a three-syllable word -- and I wonder if that set me on the path of Correct Name Righteousness. Whatever caused it, it's served me in good stead. Though I still sometimes trips over the correct pronouns to use for people I've known as they transitioned, but I'll keep trying to be good at that. Again, lots of practice. Fourth grade was a while ago.

(By the way, that interview didn't lead to a job then -- he and his bosses decided to hire internally -- but it led to them digging out my resume and calling me back in October 2009, when I was slowly losing my mind from the dog-show company job.)
Tags: dreams, language
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