names

I never really think much about my name. It's not too common (at least where I live), but it's nothing weird or out there either. And like a lot of people who live/have lived in a foreign country, my name is not pronounced the same as it is back home. I don't have a problem with it. It sounds similar, and I don't have any letters that turn silent or a guttural "R" (in my first name rather... my last name has both). Poor Hart's name was butchered last year. I've gotten so used to hearing my name a certain way here all the time from the French and other foreigners that I don't pay any attention to it. Even when speaking English, Claude and my students still say my name like in French.

Until my weekend in Strasbourg. Katie's husband said my name with the American pronunciation. It completely threw me for a loop. Sometimes, I would almost think he wasn't talking to me, because that's not the way I expected him to say it. I was so confused as to where he learned that from, but I think I figured it out. He talked numerous times about the show Lost and how there's a character named "Shannon". He also watches it in English, so he's not biased by seeing it written down somewhere or anything. He learned it the American way so that's the way he always says it now. I mean, I guess I could always introduce myself saying my name the American way, but I don't. The sounds just aren't the same in French, so it never even occurred to me to say my name normally. What do other people do?

Funnily enough, he says his wife's name with the French pronunciation. "Katie", it seems, is actually quite complicated for a French person to get correctly. If you say it the French way, they think of the French "Kathi" (you don't pronounce "H"s in French), but if you say it the American way, they hear "Kelly".

I've heard a lot of talk recently - both in the online world and amongst friends - about choosing names for children that work in both languages. I had never given any thought to something as simple as names, but I guess that would be a pretty big issue to a couple of two different nationalities.

Right now, I'm currently in Aix. I've just been relaxing. I did a little shopping, but it's mostly been a relaxing/catching up with Vero kind of holiday. It's nice. Today the temperature reached about 75F. Pretty sweet. It's supposed to be even warmer tomorrow. A few more days here, then back to Chauny for a few days before returning to the States. I'll be back home in a week. Crazy.