What's in a name?
After having spent close to five years in the heart of Texas, the one constant I continue to experience is the way my name is pronounced the first time someone reads it. It's just one syllable. But apparently it's the most complicated syllable in existence.
"Hozay, we would like to call you in for an interview."
"Hozay, you don't look very Hispanic. Why did your parents give you a Hispanic name?".
"Hozay? My name is Hozay, too!".
Exactly two people have pronounced it right the first time they read it. The first was a random Vietnamese girl four and a half years ago who was checking off names of freshmen at UT. Even that early, I was astounded that someone had said it right. Upon further inquiry, I discovered that she hadn't even heard of the Hispanic name José. Go figure. The other one was this Indian dude whose last name is my first. Considering that he ought to have known how to pronounce his last name, it wasn't a shocker that he pronounced mine right. Not another soul has said it right since.
The more amusing results have come after I had already explained its nuances to someone. The next time I bump into the person, I see them screwing up their face a little, trying their darnedest to recall how my name was pronounced. I have received numerous variations of Hoes(!), Jozay, Jaws and the like. As much as it used to annoy me, it has since grown into a source of eternal amusement and is, as I have lately discovered, not such a bad conversation starter since the first thing any old bugger would like to know about you is your name.
A couple of my closest friends had, with complete seriousness almost talked me into changing its spelling - a suggestion that I still consider quite earnestly. I have flirted with the idea of flipping the positions of the 'e' and 's' to make it more phonetically discernible. However, that could give the impression that I was deliberately trying to butcher my name, by leaving off the apostrophe.
For all the wonderful folks reading this (you are probably the only one), try saying pose. Now, replace the phonetic sound you make for the letter 'p' with a 'j' sound. There you go.
Hozay's cool too.
"Hozay, we would like to call you in for an interview."
"Hozay, you don't look very Hispanic. Why did your parents give you a Hispanic name?".
"Hozay? My name is Hozay, too!".
Exactly two people have pronounced it right the first time they read it. The first was a random Vietnamese girl four and a half years ago who was checking off names of freshmen at UT. Even that early, I was astounded that someone had said it right. Upon further inquiry, I discovered that she hadn't even heard of the Hispanic name José. Go figure. The other one was this Indian dude whose last name is my first. Considering that he ought to have known how to pronounce his last name, it wasn't a shocker that he pronounced mine right. Not another soul has said it right since.
The more amusing results have come after I had already explained its nuances to someone. The next time I bump into the person, I see them screwing up their face a little, trying their darnedest to recall how my name was pronounced. I have received numerous variations of Hoes(!), Jozay, Jaws and the like. As much as it used to annoy me, it has since grown into a source of eternal amusement and is, as I have lately discovered, not such a bad conversation starter since the first thing any old bugger would like to know about you is your name.
A couple of my closest friends had, with complete seriousness almost talked me into changing its spelling - a suggestion that I still consider quite earnestly. I have flirted with the idea of flipping the positions of the 'e' and 's' to make it more phonetically discernible. However, that could give the impression that I was deliberately trying to butcher my name, by leaving off the apostrophe.
For all the wonderful folks reading this (you are probably the only one), try saying pose. Now, replace the phonetic sound you make for the letter 'p' with a 'j' sound. There you go.
Hozay's cool too.
posted by Jose Parakkat at
1:12 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home