Expat Names that sound strange to Argentines

[Santiago F]

People... unless you're being mocked like the OP, nothing wrong if you don't get you're names pronounced perfectly well. Especially vowels. We don't have mixed vowel sounds. Someone mentioned Facundo... I met a Facundo in college, in the US. He was an Argentine, too. Faekiundou was just about as close as the average American could get. My name's Hernán. I got Hérnan with a sounding H. Most people could get those rigth after some time, but the Spanish R... nobody that I knew. And after four years in the US my English still sounded like cr*p, anyway.

I'm very surprised about Glen and Glem, though. The N's just that... an N!

Yes, it's true, for us it's easier to pronounce words ending in N rather than M. In fact, there are many words ending in M that are sometimes mispronounced with N, like Menem. I remember my grandmother always said "Menen", and also "Movicón" instead of "Movicom".

But in this particular case (Glen > Glem), I think "Blem" is getting in the way. Blem is a brand of "limpiadores para pisos" (what is that in English, floor washer????)...

Cheers

 

[angelskywalker]

Same but in reverse.... native English speakers can't seem to be able to pronounce GUADALUPE without having difficulties. Facundo is another example, bcs the U is tricky... I even heard someone saying F***U trying to pronounce it properly!

 

[MacDaddy]

Fun thread... my name (Josh) gets completely mangled here. In Central America they called me "Yosh", which I liked. But in South America, it comes out as "Jis".. don't know why.
I don't like the transliteration - Joshua (which is not actually my name, it's just Josh) is Josue - and I'm definitely not a Josue!
So I'm thinking of changing it to something completely different, easily pronounceable in both languages. I'm accepting ideas if you have any!

 

[bbobcola]

hehe yeah i have a dog's name too... bobby

 

[Napoleon]

People absolutely love my name.

But they're always shocked when they hear it. But not just here. That's been the case in nearly all 25 countries* I've ever visited.

*Does The Vatican count as a "country"? Facebook's travel app says "yes", but I'm not sure.

 

[tez]

My favorite name story is when I went to the Cemic clinic...

The SAME thing happened to me at the Cemic!! And they had no problem at all putting "Teresa" (my assumed name) when I offered it.

I go by Teresa pretty much all the time, unless I think I'll be seeing the person regularly in which case I'd prefer for them to call me by my real name: Tez, como rostro. Mine's not too bad because Tess is common enough for people here to even recognize it, but my full first name, forget about, I save that for intimate friends, even in the US!

 

[kalley]

Yes, I have this problem all the time! The name "Katie" really throws Spanish speakers for a loop. A worker at Migraciones actually rechristened me "Chicha" because he couldn't pronounce my name.

I wrote a post about this topic on my blog some time ago, if you're interested: What's In a Name?

 

[philamote]

Yes, it's true, for us it's easier to pronounce words ending in N rather than M. In fact, there are many words ending in M that are sometimes mispronounced with N, like Menem. I remember my grandmother always said "Menen", and also "Movicón" instead of "Movicom".

But in this particular case (Glen > Glem), I think "Blem" is getting in the way. Blem is a brand of "limpiadores para pisos" (what is that in English, floor washer????)...

Cheers

There's also Leandro N. Alem. I'm sure there are others too.

 

[StuckLikeGlue]

Yes, I have this problem all the time! The name "Katie" really throws Spanish speakers for a loop. A worker at Migraciones actually rechristened me "Chicha" because he couldn't pronounce my name.

I wrote a post about this topic on my blog some time ago, if you're interested: What's In a Name?

Actually, that entry in your blog is the reason for this post! I read it a few days ago. Keep it up, I really enjoy it! Especially the recipes...

 

[Hache]

But in this particular case (Glen > Glem), I think "Blem" is getting in the way.

LOL! I was thinking about that, too!!!