What’s in a name?
My first day on the job here in Japan, I was presented with an employee ID card. On it, my name was written as “ジェルリー” (Jerurii instead of Jefurii).
This afternoon, one of my coworkers sent out an email announcing my official farewell party next Monday night. In it, my name was written as “Jeffry.”
It’s nice to know that after five years of working here, my colleagues still don’t know how to spell my name.
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That’s awful Geoffrey….I would make them pay…;)
Comment by Rob — 7/28/2006 @ 7:13 am
Its funny in a sad way
Comment by Hunter — 7/30/2006 @ 1:37 am
that happens way too often eh? well my solution was to wear a katakana lable on myself for a week. at least youre on common ground that way. Plus i always wanted to wear one of those AAA name tags…
Comment by ru1 — 8/1/2006 @ 6:13 pm
after 2 years teaching italian they didn’t know i was “really” italian~!!! (long time no visit Jerry…i mean, Jeffry)
Comment by Marco — 8/1/2006 @ 6:45 pm
That’s sad… but one of my kids used to call me ‘mitakatta’ (Ms. Sachiko)… I didn’t know what she was trying to say.. it sounds like Japanese(みたかった） but she was trying to call me. But this girl is only 2years old.
Comment by sachiko — 8/1/2006 @ 9:56 pm
i understand this can be kind of disappointing. but really.. misspelling of your name happens to you in any country where people can not pronounce it easily. and what happens to asians in europe is: if they are not yoko ono, their christian names and surnames are frequently confused. so don’t be too hard on the japanese..
Comment by flor — 8/2/2006 @ 6:19 pm
Wow, I’m seriously surprised by the number of comments on this silly throw-away post!
Rob: Ha ha, very funny.
Hunter: Yep, my thoughts exactly.
ru1: Well, everyone knows my name in katakana, but I guess the English spelling is a bit too difficult to master, even after five years.
Marco: Wow, long time no see! Are you still in Seoul? I hope everything’s been going well with you! I know what you mean, though. . . even within the past year, I still had people at the company asking me from time to time if I was an intern and when I was going back to the U.S. to graduate!
sachiko: コメントありがとう！ That’s really cute. I know Judy really misses those kids a lot. I hope we can all hang out again before we leave Japan!
flor: Hmm, I guess I really should have put this face →
at the end of the post to indicate that I was just joking, eh? It has nothing to do with the fact that they’re Japanese, though; I just find it amusing that the people I have worked with for several years still haven’t managed to learn how to spell my name.
Actually, to give you all an update: At my farewell party on Monday, my coworkers gave me a card that began, “Dear Jeffery. . .”
Comment by jeff — 8/2/2006 @ 8:18 pm
by the way…
did you hear Josh is leaving japan too? (if only for a while)
makes you wonder if japan is spitting out the gaijin…
sonno-joi!
Comment by ＢＢ — 8/4/2006 @ 5:25 am