crazy hot tip from a linguist! sounds are hard!
when presented with an unfamiliar sound system it will take you some time to get used to it! this is normal and if you keep learning, it gets SO much easier!
IT IS NORMAL to find names or words you've never or only rarely heard before harder to remember and to pronounce! this does not make you an evil person!
failing to remember them or not doing your best to learn them, however, is racist and/or xenophobic behaviour. so let's talk about it.
post brought to a) by my boss struggling with gaelic names and being so embarrassed he doesn't even want to try, and b) by a despairing new student of chinese at the language school who somehow equated 'entirely reasonable challenge when confronted with new sounds and phonology in language she has dedicated 10 months of her life to learning fully time' with the type of racist behaviour that has someone mocking their coworker's name
LET'S MAKE A GOOD PERSON HOW TO BE NORMAL ABOUT NEW AND UNFAMILIAR WORDS / NAMES / SOUNDS FLOWCHART
is this sound/word/name hard?
yes - proceed to next question
no - okay showoff. but maybe ask the person how it actually sounds and whether you are in fact correct that you can say it to the best of your ability
if yes, am I willing to try anyway?
of course, it's important - congrats! you are a normal human being learning a new mouth skill many years after your built-in baby skills have begun to fade!
yes but I will complain about it the whole time! - this is not cool. how about you stop centring yourself and listen to what the other person wants and be a normal person about it?
no lol why would I - this is racist behaviour :)
when I do say the unfamiliar sound / word / name, what happens?
I tried my best and the person agrees it's pretty good! - yay! you learnt something. now don't let it go to your head <3
I tried my best but it kind of sucks - it's awkward but you've made a good effort! if your effort sucks spectacularly badly, you may be asked to still use an english name or nickname if they have one, as it's kind of just not fun to hear the constant butchering. just be normal about this and don't beat yourself up constantly, this is also annoying and self-centred. listen to the person
I've "tried my best" (aka spent one minute trying and failed) - you are kidding yourself. go away and actually learn something. look up position of tongue in mouth. youtube. diagrams. if you can recite the four generational family tree of your favourite anime/show you can do this
I find it funny or think I sound silly or am so embarrassed I refuse to try despite being asked - this is racist behaviour :)
hope this helps!
