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[PD] Hi!
Hi!
[PD ] In what ways have you ever had your name
[PD] misspelled or mispronounced?
So many ways, I tell you.
So many ways.
Wow... Oh my god.
I tell you...
My biggest pet peeve right,
is people messaging me,
or calling me Stephanie.
Because my name is just ‘Steph’ .
I will have instances where like the PR agencies
they will email me like :
‘ Hello Stephanie. ’
Nevermind.
Sometimes I do get people calling me
“Step ah!”
“Hey Step come here!”
My full name is
Feng Ying Xuan, Amanda.
So ‘ F E N G ’ usually you‘ll say Feng right?
I've always had people saying
I don’t know why people say ‘Fong’ .
It’s not F O N G ...
There was once I was at a clinic
the lady shouted my full name
and I was so embarrassed.
The women shouted
Give me my medication and I’ll leave.
My name will only be misspelled
at this one place.
Starbucks all around the world.
When I was at Switzerland,
they spelt my name as Schrain.
I literally said ‘Charmaine’ .
The thing was I even spelt it for the person.
Because I said ‘Charmaine’
then the person write one letter
and then they look at me very confused.
When they call for that person right,
“Schrain”
I just stood there.
Obviously I didn't know the person would
write Schrain as my name.
I stand there for very long.
Then other people already got their drinks
Then I look at that one drink over there...
Then I see the name...
Schrain.
I guess that’s me.
Because that drink was my drink.
When I went to Indonesia,
they spell my name as ‘Samid’ .
On YouTube, I call myself Sew right?
We literally have place holders
and supers everywhere to show
what is my name.
It’s here.
Sew.
It’s always somewhere here.
But yet in the comments people will always
spell as S I E W.
That’s an actual surname you know?
But it’s somebody else's family.
It is not my family.
My family is S E W.
But I don't get offended when people
spell or pronounce my name wrongly.
I just find it interesting.
I hope I get more of these
Schrain or Samid thing you know?
I'm not even particular about
like whether it's Re-nae or Ri-nae
but then people always spell it as ‘Ra-nae’
Why?
Cab driver uncles will ask (how to pronounce my name)
and then I’ll say it’s “Renae” .
and then they'll repeat it back to me
but it’s something completely different.
“Oh Reni ah?”
“Reni.”
Okay.
Noted, thank you!
Thank you for teaching me a new name.
Okay, wow this name is so special.
Uncle do you hear yourself?
It’s not what I said!
Oh my god, Rena.
A lot of people call me Rena.
I've literally been on dating app meetups
where we've been texting for like weeks.
And the guy is like, “Hi, Rena!”
I thought you were taking notes
because you were impacted by my story.
Because my name is very short,
I prefer to meet in person
and say “Hi, I’m Rafe.”
So at least they know how it’s pronounced.
If it’s in a text conversation,
“Hey I’m Rafe”
Then people will be calling me Rafi.
But then again,
Singaporeans tend to have short-term memory also.
After I introduce myself as Rafe,
Five minutes later they’ll ask...
If you think what? I coffee is it?
Frappuccino, raffuccino.
There was a point in time where I was like...
Should I just changed my spelling
to Zayn or Zane?
But I realize that Zhin
keeps it pretty unique.
And it's a conversation starter.
I tell you, there was once when
I was an intern at this CBD office.
and I introduce myself as Zhin.
One time I was doing my work
and then this lady was calling
Jean
Jin,
Jeans.
So I was like, Oh, that's not me.
That's some lady called Jean.
So I was like ignoring her.
Like okay, it’s not me.
Then she came to me...
“Hey! I’m calling you, Jean (Zhin) ”
Then I’m like ?_?
There was once a client spelt my name as
I became an element
on the periodic table.
That one I do not know how.
Okay, so my name is Kezia.
The more common variation of the name is
is Keziah.
In secondary school my Chemistry teacher
called me Kezil.
And when I went to Junior College,
another Chemistry teacher called me Kenzia.
When I went to work part-time,
I had a lot of Kesha(s).
And it’s not just at one place,
it was at multiple of the places
that I worked part-time in,
they call me Kesha.
Which was really very weird
because my sister is called Kesha.
So there's this one teacher in primary school.
She was an English teacher.
She came in was like,
going through the list of students right?
Then it came to my name.
And she was like...
Then I’m like ???
Me, I guess?
Then she was like
“How do you pronounce your name?”
I said “Alastair” .
Then she said no it's not.
It’s phonetically pronounced as Al-star.
And I was like 9 years old or something right?
So I got gaslit into thinking
my name was pronounced as Al-star.
For like the longest time.
It has gotten to the point where like
I pretty much answer anything
as long as you get it in the rough ballpark.
Alistair.
Alaster.
There was one period of time
I replied to Vanessa.
Bascially... I go to Starbucks,
I just say Pang.
Dont even bother saying Alastair
because they’ll confirm get it wrong anyways.
So I just don't let them disappoint me at all.
I just give them an easy name.
They screw up Pang, it’s their fault.
There was one time I was misunderstood
and got scolded for it.
I was at a job one day.
And I had to pass through security.
So then the security (guard)
needed to take down my name and whatever.
Actually, not take down.
He was just asking like,
what is your name?
What are you here?
So I said,
My name is Estee, I’m here for an event.
He was like... S ... T ?
Can you stop joking with me?
That I like (???)
Very, very confused.
Then I was like... Sorry?
My name is Estee.
Then he's like.
Yeah, ST stands for what?
Like you don't
you don't come and give me initials you know?
He shouted at me...!!!
What the heck?
Then I was like (stressed) .
So confused.
Slightly scared.
This is the first time someone is
misunderstanding my name as an initial.
Then after that that he a bit be embarrassed.
So my name is Brenda right?
And it's honestly quite straightforward.
So I don't get my name mispronounced very often.
Foreigners usually call me Brenda.
Singaporeans will call me Brenda-h.
I don’t know why.
But actually the one person
who mispronounces my name
the most is my grandma.
Or like the older generations
who don't speak English because
they just cannot remember.
So she calls me like Banter.
But I’m used to it already, since young.
So everytime she calls me “Banter”.
I’ll be like “Yes, yes.” <3
Then my brother's name is Bryan right?
Then she ownself translate
to like bai lian (white face).
Thank you for watching this video.
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Bye!
Yeah, please just say hi to me.
Then spell my name
whatever way you think it should be spelt.
Go ahead, go ahead.