When a teacher stops, squints at the roll sheet, clears their throat, then looks extra carefully again, I know I’m about to be (once again) subject to the annual mortification of having to ask my teacher to please call me by my legal English name.
The problem comes from how my name is written as Lezhi Rose Liu on the attendance sheet.
I’m too used to the Chinese part of my legal name — Lezhi Liu — constantly being mispronounced or spelled wrong. Among the more egregious mistakes are dropping the “h” in my name, pronouncing the “i” as “ee,” and most embarrassingly, being called “lychee.”
But what truly irks me aren’t pronunciation errors; it’s the fact that my legal name includes both my Chinese and English names, yet it seems no one ever thinks to try pronouncing my English name first.
So please consider first attempting my very pronounceable English name. Spare me the shame of a name so mangled it passes the point of recognition, and spare yourself the chagrin of seeming uncultured.
