My name is, my name is (not the real Slim Shady)

I’m sure most of you know what my name is, but I’m also very sure that most English native speakers of you will pronounce my name differently to what I would call myself.

I have been living in England now for over a whole year; adding my Erasmus time, it’s almost two years I have spent on this island.

I think it’s time to do a round-up now to keep you all up-to-date, especially since it got a bit silent on this blog in the past three months.

The past year was a rollercoaster ride from Alton Towers-esque devastation to helter skelter fun. A lot of things happened career wise: I got my first full-time journo job, I left my full-time journo job, I started my NCTJ, I finished my NCTJ, I got published in a national paper (ok online, but still) and am freelancing at the moment and able to pay my rent (*life goal*). Oh yes and at some point I finally and officially graduated.

A lot of terrible things happened as well, but I don’t want to focus on that now. I want to explain to you how difficult it is to teach myself to tell people how to pronounce my name like it’s pronounced on the continent (let’s just forget about France for now).

No, I didn’t show people this video. When I moved to the UK last year, I didn’t bother telling colleagues how most of my close friends and family call me. I sometimes told English native speakers my “real” name at parties and, frankly, most of them could not handle that. A puzzled American once told me that my name must be very unusual.  - Not quite right, buddy.

From a cultural point of view, assuming that the name of a person coming from a country where the language is different to your own, is pronounced the same way as in your language reveals a lack of understanding and mostly, experience of other cultures and languages. There’s a great word in ze German language to call a person who knows worldly stuff: weltgewandt (turned towards the world). Oooh can we see a parallel there that Britain is a *tiny* bit known for not being hugely interested in, say, European matters?

My surname seems to evoke some sort of confusion, too, in Germany and the UK. What were my parents thinking?

With that put out there – I have to say that I still introduce myself to people with whom I know I won’t spent a lot of time with the English version of my name. The blame therefore is partly on me.

But experiences have shown me it’s easier to assimilate when in contact with strangers in order not to be the “odd one”. And yes, at the moment you already feel like an odd one as a migrant in the UK.

But the world is not a melting pot, it’s a salad bowl.

That’s why I am deeply in love with people who ask me out of the blue how my name is pronounced correctly. I know it’s a struggle to pronounce it, but you can learn like I learnt to pronounce big beds and squirrel.

Let’s just do all our bit, okay?