Comments on: One name: why so hard?

By: Stilgherrian : Australian Business Register fixed!

Stilgherrian : Australian Business Register fixed! — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 22:31:46 +0000

[...] The Australian Business Register, who last week had problems getting my name right, emailed me yesterday: [...]

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 21:11:47 +0000

Garth, that almost makes me wonder whether I should even be complaining about my “little problem’ at all!

Almost.

By: Garth

Garth — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 11:30:31 +0000

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 00:29:28 +0000

And, ’Pong, I wonder how they cope with African names, where the apostrophe is used to denote the “tongue click”?

By: 'Pong

'Pong — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 22:48:43 +0000

*nod* from Trinn (’Pong) Suwannapha. Just the nickname I like to have an apostrophe, how hard is the system can cope.

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 21:41:06 +0000

Richard, I’m still astounded that, after decades of immigration from virtually every country on the planet, people who work in jobs with plenty of public contact — the police, for instance — still often seem incapable of noticing that other people’s traditions might not be exactly the same as their own.

This is particularly astounding when the person’s job title is “detective” — a job that, at least as far as I understand it, has something to do with noticing subtle relationships between facts which might lead to a conclusion.

Funny ol’ world…

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 17:35:05 +0000

That’s ‘pejorative’. Install a ‘preview’ option here, damn you.

It’s particularly annoying, given your recent post re: spelling howlers.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 17:30:23 +0000

And yes, you pay your bloody taxes! The system should accommodate you, not the other way around.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 17:25:56 +0000

DFAT usually get it right ‘cos they’re exposed to other naming conventions. It’s common for Indonesians, for example, to use a one-word name. (Like ‘Amrozi’….)

The wacky fun begins when Vietnamese names are transcribed by Anglos; it’s time to get used to being known by your family name, kids, just like boot camp!

Somebody once asked me if I agreed that it was ‘weird’ that ‘all these kids have the same Christian name… “Nguyen”… how do they tell ‘em apart?’ I cannot say whether this was the same detective who freely used the phrase ‘over-educated’ as a universal perjorative; like the fine men and women of the Armed Offenders Squad, I can’t remember.

They say ‘turnabout is fair play’, so Karma dictated that I was known on official documents as ‘FLTLT Richard’ whenever I worked in Malaysia.