Fun Stuff > CHATTER
What seemed weird when I visited your country
ev4n:
--- Quote from: Akima on 06 Jun 2014, 17:40 ---The soft French-style pronunciation of the J in Beijing is alien to both Chinese and English. Noam Chomsky argues that we exoticise the "other" in language, and that for many English-speakers, the default exotic is French. :P
--- End quote ---
I find this point of view interesting given that I live in a strongly English/French part of the world. I would have assumed that what I was seeing was just local to me.
Ben:
Flicking through my passport, I find that the Russian visa office have used no less than four different Roman alphabet spellings of my name, and three different Cyrillic transliterations. It doesn't seem to worry them so I don't worry about it either providing it produces some recognisable variant and we all agree that it represents a specific individual, for the purpose of the exercise.
I have been called "Mr Ben" in many Eastern Mediterranean and Central Asian countries over the years; this is a misunderstanding based on misinterpreting the firms if names, which anyone familiar with these countries will know well. I sometimes have problems in Russian speaking countries because virtually all Russians have a patronymic, a form of name unknown in the West.
GarandMarine:
Well assuming you have a father, it would follow you just don't use your patronymic yes? So if your father's name is John, Ben Ivanovich or in my personal case GM Petrovich
cesium133:
My dad had the same first name as me, so if I used a patronymic it would be somewhat repetitive, though I guess it isn't any different among actual Russians. "Vladimir Vladimirovich" is apparently a fairly common combination in Russia.
Loki:
GM Petrovich sounds hilarious.
Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov is sometimes used as a placeholder for a name (e.g. if you specify how a certain form has to be filled out.); I think it is similar to "John Smith" in that regard.
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