Texas lawmaker wants Asian-Americans to have simpler names.

[RJDiogenes]

If she thinks Chinese names are too complicated, we should show her some Tai or Indian names. She'll have an aneurysm.

Gotta love Texas.

Well, didn't she say "Asian", not specifically just Chinese?

She said, "Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese...." Although people like her often use "Chinese" and "Asian" interchangeably.

Gotta love Texas.

No. No, we really don't.

Can't we just call it a loss and give Texas back to Mexico?

No, it's got natural resources. But we can export most of the people to Mexico.

 

[Rii]

OCA Executive Director George Wu

Woah, slow down there.

 

[farmkid]

It might've helped matters if whoever developed the various original transliteration "standards" hadn't picked such arbitrary letter combinations to represent various foreign syllables.

Example: Nguyen is pronounced "Wenn". Why not spell it that way when Romanized? Where does the Ngu come from? Fortunately someone informed me of the proper pronunciation before I ever had a chance to insult someone by pronouncing it the way it's spelled, "nuh-goo-yen".

So that's how it's pronounced! I've been seeing Nguyen written for years, but never knew how to pronounce it. For the last few years, I've been a graduate student at a university where just a little over 50% of the student body is of Asian descent, but I've been fortunate enough to be able to avoid saying it up to now because I knew I would probably offend someone if I did. You learn something every day.

In recent history I had to record donations from individuals on a weekly basis, many of whom were of Asian descent. It was frustrating for me when they would spell their names inconsistently from week to week, sometimes using their maiden name, sometimes their current name, sometimes surname first, other times surname last...I kept having to check their addresses to ensure the records were accurate.

But I do agree, legislating that people adopt a more "American" name to conform, takes something away both from their freedom and their cultural heritage. As a libertarian (small L there), I believe governments should have as little involvement in peoples' lives as possible, and concentrate on real issues instead.

I think this is exactly the problem that was being discussed in the meeting that spawned this whole discussion. And if you look at the quotes, no one was suggesting legislating anything. The accused was suggesting that the Asian-American community settle on some standard method of translating their names to avoid their voting problems and the problems you were having.

 

[Ariadne]

Example: Nguyen is pronounced "Wenn". Why not spell it that way when Romanized? Where does the Ngu come from? Fortunately someone informed me of the proper pronunciation before I ever had a chance to insult someone by pronouncing it the way it's spelled, "nuh-goo-yen".

If you listen to a Vietnamese person pronounce it, it's not *quite* "wenn" - there's a slight 'n' at the beginning.

 

[Brent]

I'm from Texas, it isn't all that bad, there are idiots in every state, Texas is just a big state with a lot of people, i'm from the DFW area.

 

[Crusher Disciple]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/09/asian-americans-blast-offensive-comment-texas-lawmaker/

Texas Rep. Betty Brown, a Republican,
.....

Everybody in the betting pool owes me money. I called it. I called it.

 

[Crusher Disciple]

Gotta love Texas.

No. No, we really don't.

Can't we just call it a loss and give Texas back to Mexico?

No, it's got natural resources. But we can export most of the people to Mexico.

AHEM.

 

[captcalhoun]

she's got a point, however badly she expressed it. i thought nguyen was pronounced nuh-guy-en.

and i do agree about east european names. Zxypizklski. WTF?!

but, it is pretty ethnocentric...

 

[pookha]

It might've helped matters if whoever developed the various original transliteration "standards" hadn't picked such arbitrary letter combinations to represent various foreign syllables.

Example: Nguyen is pronounced "Wenn". Why not spell it that way when Romanized? Where does the Ngu come from? Fortunately someone informed me of the proper pronunciation before I ever had a chance to insult someone by pronouncing it the way it's spelled, "nuh-goo-yen".

So that's how it's pronounced! I've been seeing Nguyen written for years, but never knew how to pronounce it. For the last few years, I've been a graduate student at a university where just a little over 50% of the student body is of Asian descent, but I've been fortunate enough to be able to avoid saying it up to now because I knew I would probably offend someone if I did. You learn something every day.

In recent history I had to record donations from individuals on a weekly basis, many of whom were of Asian descent. It was frustrating for me when they would spell their names inconsistently from week to week, sometimes using their maiden name, sometimes their current name, sometimes surname first, other times surname last...I kept having to check their addresses to ensure the records were accurate.

But I do agree, legislating that people adopt a more "American" name to conform, takes something away both from their freedom and their cultural heritage. As a libertarian (small L there), I believe governments should have as little involvement in peoples' lives as possible, and concentrate on real issues instead.

I think this is exactly the problem that was being discussed in the meeting that spawned this whole discussion. And if you look at the quotes, no one was suggesting legislating anything. The accused was suggesting that the Asian-American community settle on some standard method of translating their names to avoid their voting problems and the problems you were having.

which form the name took had nothing to do with it.
it had to with her not being able to pronounce it...


in her own words..

"Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese -- I understand its a rather difficult language -- do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?" Brown said

what a bigoted moron.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I'm from Texas, it isn't all that bad, there are idiots in every state, Texas is just a big state with a lot of people, i'm from the DFW area.

Very true. We have a few like that in Massachusetts, too.

AHEM.

Notice that I said "most."

 

[clint g]

It might've helped I think this is exactly the problem that was being discussed in the meeting that spawned this whole discussion. And if you look at the quotes, no one was suggesting legislating anything. The accused was suggesting that the Asian-American community settle on some standard method of translating their names to avoid their voting problems and the problems you were having.

Standards already exist. There's Romanji for Japanese and pinyin for Chinese.