Tuesday, 25 March 2014

Dear Westernized World, Stop The Name Massacre!



There is nothing more frustrating than an individual who massacres the pronounciation of your name. They pronounce it in that condescending, "it is not my mother tongue" attitude to a point you want to slap them! Especially, Afrikaaners (I am not attacking). It was very evident during high school. They tend to come up with unexplainable versions of your name, like one of my high school rugby coaches would say 'Busisiwe' whenever he wanted to say 'Sbusiso'.

When I was still in primary school, only one teacher could pronounce my Sotho name although with a Tswana dialect ('g' instead of 'h'), and since grade 2 I've been called Daniel up til this day. Recently, a woman from England came under attack for calling Barack Obama 'Barraco Barner'. To make matters worse, she even thought Obama was THEIR prime minister, (shameful).

The Western world have a strong penchant for frowning upon those of us who mispronounce their names, especially the Spanish and French. During first year, I decided to take up French. The pronounciation was really stressed upon. Writer Sitinga Kachipande has released a fantastic article on this 'massacre', I urge you to read it, it will help!

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