Monday, May 19, 2008

A new Spanish word

Recent correspondence from sponsor re Veronica's House
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I shake my head each time it happens ... the mispronunciation or the gender confusion. Such a simple and straightforward two-syllable name! I can only assume that people who see my name as a male name are Spanish speaking.

El gato - the cat
El cielo - the sky
El sol - the sun
El coche - the car
El speth - the producer/director of VHouse

4 comments:

GirlBlue said...

I can relate to this. People not only spell my name in very new and inventive ways all the time but also address me as Mr. in correspondence or on the phone when asking for me. The correction is usually followed by a sorry and oh that is such a nice name *eye roll*. The appearance of a young male actor with my name has not helped matters along at all.

Hell my company has the SU listed as female on the database and I have long since given up trying to get them to correct it. Hey if they want to be so open who am I to complain.

Pronouncing my name also seems to require the brain power of a rocket scientist. Go me! Go you! Go us!

human being said...

oh yes because of EL

the first time i saw your name, it reminded me of Eldorado...
:)

i relate to this, too...
the first time i ordered some books from England (i was a university student then) they wrote Mr.......
first i was surprised, then i told my self,"how on earth can they know about Iranian names?"

Andreamuse said...

*giggles*

Oh yes -- and like I told you, M gets things addressed to him as "Ms" or "MIss" all the time! :D

Kimberlie said...

Unless you're Scottish and you know the name "Elspeth" to be female, I can see how such not knowing can occur and why one would assume male instead of female when taking a guess (we live under patriarchy). Many names are used for both males and females, such as: Kim, Cris, Jody, Morgan, Sascha, Jody, etc. When in doubt, ask and don't assume. That someone assumed or had no doubt. Who knows.

What this confusion reveals to me is how big a deal gender is in so many cultures and how nervous many people get when they misidentify someone's gender or are misidentified themselves. And what is the source of this nervousness?


I stopped correcting people who see me and call me male years ago.