I heard the Ting Tings - That's not my name and it jogged my memory...
Whilst in South Africa, I was reminded how wound up I used to get about the pronunciation of my name when I lived there.
Because the country was largely colonised by the Dutch settlers, their language (with a smattering of German and French) evolved into Afrikaans. Therefore my name Karen is pronounced by everyone as a very guttural Ka-a-a-r-r-r-en (a as in car, hard r as in brrr), instead of the soft English version Carin (as in Catherine without the middle bit).
I hated it so much that I started introducing myself as my initials KC. Yeesh! You'd think no-one could fuck that up, but believe me it still happened.
When we moved to the UK it was such a relief not to have to explain how to pronounce my name. I have also met so many other Karens with the same spelling and pronunciation that I feel quite at home.
I am sincerely hoping that my name will not be a problem in NZ.
The Ting Tings - That's not my name
Whilst in South Africa, I was reminded how wound up I used to get about the pronunciation of my name when I lived there.
Because the country was largely colonised by the Dutch settlers, their language (with a smattering of German and French) evolved into Afrikaans. Therefore my name Karen is pronounced by everyone as a very guttural Ka-a-a-r-r-r-en (a as in car, hard r as in brrr), instead of the soft English version Carin (as in Catherine without the middle bit).
I hated it so much that I started introducing myself as my initials KC. Yeesh! You'd think no-one could fuck that up, but believe me it still happened.
When we moved to the UK it was such a relief not to have to explain how to pronounce my name. I have also met so many other Karens with the same spelling and pronunciation that I feel quite at home.
I am sincerely hoping that my name will not be a problem in NZ.
The Ting Tings - That's not my name
