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I seldom write about myself. I suppose you can say I’m a fairly private person (either that, or I’m a boring old bloke; take your pick).
Let me give you an idea what I mean. Blogger tells me that, since my first post (November 11, 2009), I have published 908 posts in this blog, over a variety of topics. Out of that number, only 11 contain personal references (this is the eleventh).
So, here goes. I am among the 49% of all Australians who, according to the 2016 Census, are either born overseas or have at least one parent born there. Coming from continental Europe, my surname, as you might suspect, is not common in Australia. Suffice it to say it is one of those family names full of unusual combinations of consonants, oddly arranged :-)
More to the point: being an uncommon name, Australians of all origins have a tendency to misspell and mispronounce it in random ways. Like the ABC’s Tahlea Aualiitia, I find that can be annoying.
Let me give you a well-known example (by Australians, at any rate): surnames of Armenian origin, like Berejiklian. The emphasis should be placed in the last syllable. Something like Berejikli-Anne.
Another example coming from a popular former SBS anchor-woman: Tegucigalpa (the capital of Honduras). In spite of her interest in fashion, that town has nothing to do with Gucci. It isn’t The-goo-tchi-galpa, it’s The-goo-c-galpa.
A last, more personal, example. For years a friend called me by a name that wasn’t mine. He must have thought it was common for people of my background. He wasn’t alone at that.
He only learned my name after introducing me to another person. I extended my hand to shake that person’s hand and told her my name.
“But I have been calling you such and such for years”, surprised, my friend said. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
I guess I never did because to teach people my name can be a bit of a bother, not worth the effort. Pace P.T. Barnum, I don’t find names that important anyway. In fact, in my friend’s case, the whole thing was rather amusing.
He, by the way, was born in Syria.
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You know how I definitely learned to overlook that kind of thing? Annastacia Palaszczuk taught me. If it weren’t for the Google autocompletion feature (see what I mean by unusual consonant combinations, yes?) I could not spell either name (I doubt Pala-che, the common pronunciation, is accurate).
Moreover I have exactly the same hard time with the names Bassingthwaighte (an Aussie celeb’s surname) and Schwarzenegger as I have with Soutphommasane (a local scholar). I may be a slow learner, but I apply equal opportunity.
If I tried hard I could learn, I suppose. After all, I can spell Ludwig van Beethoven. Why the difference? I am not sure. Perhaps because Beethoven’s fame has endured through the centuries, while the others’, with all due respect and for all their personal virtues, which I’m sure they have, may not.
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Tahlea Aualiitia feels much more strongly than I about that.
Not being a person of colour myself (and not being either young nor woman), I won’t presume to understand her. She may have her reasons. Her experiences may differ from mine.
What I can say is that I can’t cast the first stone on those who can’t spell my name.
And I can promise I’ll do my best to learn hers. I can’t promise I’ll succeed, however. If I fail, please think of that as a peculiarity of a silly old man, not as something deeper.
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Incidentally, the facts that (1) half of Australians were either born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas, and (2) more than a third of Australian media articles reflect negative views of minority communities, which Aualiitia highlights, raise some questions.
Is it possible that some of those media articles could have been written by persons with an overseas background? Could some of their authors even be persons of colour or members of minority communities?
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