» What is my name in…

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What is my name in…

26 November 2008 4 Comments

Hi, my name is Laura!!

Name pronunciation and “what is my name in English?” has been an issue for my son, that’s why I recorded the sound so I can explain what is going on.

My name (Laura) is written is different countries the same way but people pronounce it differently from country to country. Jose for instance in English is Joseph so there is a translation for that name. But should our names me translated or pronounced differently if we are going to another country? I don’t think so.

My son has been asking a lot of questions about this because he likes to be called differently so he keeps asking me “how do you call me in English? (or in French)”

What I try to explain him is that we have our own name and it is the same all over the world, I mean, I’m called Laura with Portuguese pronunciation no matter if I am in Portugal, in the United States or France.

Then it’s time for the difficult question: Oh yes, than why we say and write Lisboa and in the United States they call it Lisbon, or New York for us is Nova York? Well, good question.

What can I say? We all should speak the same language so that these questions wouldn’t exist.

Take a look at these related posts:

4 Comments »

Elizabeth said:

I feel the same way — a person’s name should be pronounced how they would pronounce it. I recently launched a site http://www.howtosaythatname.com with audio links just as you have posted of how people say their names. It’s part of your identity. And like another blogger http://tinyurl.com/6kxo8y recently said, it isn’t about you not being able to remember or pronounce someone else’s name, it’s about them and showing the effort to respect their identity. As for place names (Paris and Norway/Norge come to mind), that’s not as easy to control.

# 27 November 2008 at 12:35

Connie said:

It was nice to hear your voice! Out of respect for you I would pronounce your name as you do and not change it to suit me. That is only fair.

# 27 November 2008 at 6:33

Laura (author) said:

Elizabeth, I checked your site and one think I noticed is that the Portuguese names you have are pronounced in Portuguese from Brazil. In Portugal we pronounce in a different way.

# 29 November 2008 at 5:29

Laura (author) said:

Connie, it was the first time I recorded something to publish. Sounds weired!!
Next step = record a video, I just need a camera