Since we're on the subject of last names and romanization/anglicization...
My last name is Tsai, which is a common Taiwanese romanization of the Chinese Character 蔡. I pronounce it in the Mandarin Chinese way with the strong "ts" sound. This sound is often difficult for non-Chinese speakers to say. The Taiwanese pronunciation is different still, and I don't use that unless I'm speaking to a native Taiwanese person.
Growing up in Cincinnati when I was younger, I'd intentionally mispronounce it "sigh" to make it easier for people to say. Most likely it was the first time they had ever seen a name like that.
But, that changed when I went to college. It was refreshing when people there would pronounce my name correctly more often than not. I decided from then on, that I would forsake convenience and say my name the way I wanted to sound when asked. Now the process of when I'm asked my last name is to say it slowly and then spell it for them. Sometimes they'll try to repeat it back to me and I'll spend the time to try to teach them to say it correctly.
Here's a little guide on how to pronounce Chinese names.
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3 comments:
Problem with that guide is that there is roughly 1/3 Chinese Americans from mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, each with its own romanization system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_Chinese_surnames
It's definitely a headache with different spellings for the same name, and also that people with the same name tell others how to pronounce it differently. (Like some people with last name Wang will insist others pronounce it the accurate way: "wong").
It's no wonder Gary Locke's parents named him that instead of Lok Gaa-Fai.
I was told once that when names were anglicized they were spelled phonetically due to the differences in the alphabets? therefore I would prounce the "t" in "Tsai".
My favorite Asian name (vietnamese) is "Phuc". It's entertaining to watch instructors just before they try to pronounce it. And wouldn't you know - they always got it right...
Martha,
The most common ways people mispronounced Tsai
1. TUH sigh
2. TUH Say
3. TA see (that made no sense to me)
TUH sigh is actually close if they merge the TUH and the s sound together.
Yeah, Phuc is a fun one.
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