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Comment by rendall | Hacker News Reader

Stop. For whatever reason, he has people call him Slava and does not correct them when they do so.

>For whatever reason

The reason is that you won't bother to pronounce Vyacheslav so Russians have to use a short version of their name.

No, they don't have to - they are chosing to. To pretend otherwise is to say they don't have agency in this, which they do.

Even if somebody puts a gun to your head and orders you to change your name, you'd still have a choice and it would be your decision what to do. That's not much of an argument though.

No one put a gun to his head though. Discomfort of English speakers isn't enough reason to not use your real name if that's your preference. Again, speaking from experience.

Many Chinese (speaking) students in the US pick an English language name like “William” or “Wendy” because they know people they meet will struggle with a name which could be several short words with unfamiliar vowels and consonants and tone that matters.

Of course - and I support their choice. People struggle with my name every day and I could change it to make it easier for English speakers - but I don't think that's quite the same as being "forced" to change it.

Sure, but do you refuse to use the names those people give? This takes away their agency. It is their call, not yours.

It can also be annoying to run the 15-minute gauntlet of "but how do you really pronounce it", and you end up having to play dialect coach.

Going by an easy-to-pronounce name is much less aggravating.

People would want to avoid awkward situation and talk to you (or about you) less.

That's not quite the same as having a gun to your head. Again, I have a slavic name that's extremely difficult to English speakers and I live in the UK - no one is forcing me to change it. I understand some people chose to change their name so it's "easier" for English speakers - and I respect that choice. But let's not pretend that Mr Turyshev was "forced" to change his name - he wasn't.

Nobody said that it's the same, but the logic of the argument is the same.

I won't bother? But you don't know me?

Did you mean that English speakers don't pronounce Russian names the way Russians do?

Ask your local Russian to pronounce rural Worcestershire the way that English speakers do.

Your typical Russian speaker cannot. Is it that they aren't "bothering"? The idea is absurd. Let people approximate foreign names in their own tongue. Or, if the way that they naturally pronounce something is truly atrocious, give them a name that is easier to pronounce.

Or watch this fellow give foreign pronunciation his best shot: https://youtu.be/fKGoVefhtMQ Absurd, right?

Okay, that was about as rude on my part as ordering me to stop was on yours. My apologies.

But the point is that most people won't bother to google the pronunciation, listen to it and make an effort to repeat close enough. By the way, Dr. Turyshev's name is the easy part, the surname is the real challenge)

Russians when speaking Russian have no obligation to pronounce my name the way that I do, given that it apparently has sounds that are not in Russian.

I don't think people have that obligation when the name has foreign sounds in it whatever language they're speaking.

Where did the word 'obligation' appear from?

Perhaps you did not realize that asserting "It's Vyacheslav" and complaining that people do not "bother" to google "proper pronunciation" and "practice" until "good enough" strongly implies obligation? If not, it does. Disagree or not, let's agree to let this go. Feel free to have the last word. I will read it carefully.

Of course it doesn't.

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