This past week during english class At IPS Newcomer; the article/subject was on a literature reading by Julia Alvarez. The passage was on her being born in America while being a Dominican (aka American-Dominican). There were two sections that the class focused on, the first was on how she was bullied and made fun of because of her name. As well as, people getting/pronouncing her name wrong, examples such as, Juliet, Julie, Judy, Alcatraz, etc. Teachers tended to get her first name wrong while other students made fun of her last name. This made me think about being in the classroom at IPS Newcomer, many teachers there always pronounce the students names wrong because a lot of them have latin roots- (as well as how they pronounce each word/syllable for any name). I know what it feels like to have your name pronounced wrong or someone says a completely different name. My name is Hallie (Hal-lee), many times I get called Holly, Hayley (Haleigh/Haley), and a few times I’ve gotten Allie or Callie. Every year that I have been attending school not one teacher in my elementary or middle school, called me Hallie; it was always Haley. During high school, maybe a maximum of four teachers pronounced it right on first attendance or when calling on me. Many people always say “why don’t you correct them,” well after a while it gets kind of tiring to tell them that its not Haley. I usually only tell them if its a professional setting, such as being introduced to someone, interview, etc. So, I can relate to the wrong name calling. In addition, with being bullied with my name was only maybe once or twice (being called H-squared or HH-gregg) weird… yes I know, but my initials are HH, so thats why. I didn’t really care because it sounded terrible when they said it versus being called it because like its not that much of an insult to me.
This topic discussed in class made me think of our units, China and Islamic. I’m pretty sure many people and even me have pronounced a Chinese or Islamic name incorrectly. So, I can see how even though its a name, it can be very annoying or frustrating when people consecutively say it wrong/make fun of it. I decided to look up Islamic names because why not. This site shows some common Islamic names for girls and boys (I loved up H ones to see if there is any similarity). As well as, the meanings that the names have in Islamic is so special compared to someone being called Bob, ya know. Not bashing on anyone named Bob, but like a name such as Hasan, means to be beautiful and to be good. They all have nice meanings originating from Arabic. Have fun looking up names, as well as, trying to find a similar name to yours!