"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
-Some old dudeB-Shakes knew what he was talking about. The rose may smell as sweet but they're not calling it the same thing all around the world. Whether you call me Joe Montana or Flowers McGee, it doesn't change the fact that I can't throw a football. That said, would it kill people in this country to call me by my actual name?
"To be...or not to be?That is the.....ehhhhhhhhh.........NU!"
For the sake of this example, let's say we're all Americans. Ok, now everybody eat a Big Mac and act fake. Ha ha. (C'mon, I make fun of the Israelis all the time, it's all in good fun. OR IS IT??? High-five, Israelis!) You've just met a nice Israeli who's moved to the States; in fact, you're a teacher and he's one of your students. You see his name written on the roll sheet but there's a vowel missing. The name reads "Mrdechai."
When calling his name, do you say...?
A) Mardechai
B) Murdechai
C) Mordechai
D) This is America! You'll go by Morty and like it!
(My senior year, we had an Israeli kid named Yuval enroll in the school. He joined my gym class where the other boys proceeded to call him "Yuvie." How endearing. As far as these people were concerned, he was what sunglasses were supposed to protect them from.)
If you said C, you guessed correctly. If you said D, you are very multi-cultured.
So why is it so hard for people here to pronounce "Benji"? BEN-gee!!!
SAY IT! SAY IT, DAMMIT!!! New Years Eve, I'm at Karnaf, this wrap place with my friends Ziv and Amalia. We place our orders and wait for them to call our names over the mic. "Zeev!" Check. "Amalia!" Check. "Bahn-gee!" My friends laughed hysterically and the truth is, I did too. How could I not? Aside from the fact that over the microphone, most of the Middle East probably heard it, it's ridiculous that when Israelis say my name, they apparently think I'm named for this.
Really? בנג'י is so foreign? It's not obvious that it's connected to "Benjamin" or בנימין? I never had a name that I had to explain in the States, like my co-worker "Brannon" who introduced herself as "Dannon" with a "Br-". I guess I'd better get used to it.Either that or start going by "Dudu." Of course that raises a whole nother series of issues.
6 comments:
Oh this makes me laugh! I just blogged about the OPPOSITE. Finally here people have stopped pronouncing my daughter's name "Yale." We've been here 8 days and already met 3 other Yaels...
This made me think of the many ways my last name has bene pronounced.
I think the worst is when Israelis add an "h" to a name where it shouldn't be, for example: Nathalia.
Oh, this really rings a chord with me! Here in the US no one seems to be able to pronounce Sarit correctly. I get everything from Sah-RIT to She-REESE. Ugh. I LOVE going to Israel and being able to use my name instead of my husband's when making dinner reservations.
Seriously though, Ben (alas, you'll never be Benji to me...), there's no gimel in Benyamin, so why do you think Israelis would ever make the connection with your nickname?
Benji, just give it a little more time -- once you're fully acculturated you'll realize, so what no one can pronounce your name ... YIYEH B'SEDER!!!
I can top that one. They CANNOT say Darla.....it comes out, I swear to you, "dollar!"
They don't even bother to tackle my husband's "British" first name, instead they call him by his last name. How endearing. Not.
I would switch to my "Hebrew" name, but I detest it. Perhaps I'll re-name myself.
Benji, don't expect everyone in the world to be anglicized. It may seem to you obvious that the nickname associated with Benjamin is Benji. However, Benjamin is the anglicized form of Binyamin, a biblical hebrew name. So of course Israelis don't get it, why should they?
On the other hand, you overlook some linguistic rules in hebrew. One of them is that when one doesn't know the correct vowel (especially when the word is foreign in origin, and Benjamin for all intents and purposes is foreign to hebrew, (don't get insulted)), the default vowel is "a". That explains why you were called "bahnjee".
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