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kaiser wrote:Let me guess: Nguyen

bk187 wrote:

kaiser wrote:Let me guess: Nguyen

Maybe my California-ness is showing but this isn't that hard to pronounce.

bk187 wrote:

kaiser wrote:Let me guess: Nguyen

Maybe my California-ness is showing but this isn't that hard to pronounce.

bk187 wrote:

kaiser wrote:Let me guess: Nguyen

Maybe my California-ness is showing but this isn't that hard to pronounce.

bk187 wrote:

kaiser wrote:Let me guess: Nguyen

Maybe my California-ness is showing but this isn't that hard to pronounce.

UnitarySpace wrote:obviously its a chinese guy with a z or x in his name.

Anonymous User wrote:I am also a girl.

kaiser wrote:

bk187 wrote:

kaiser wrote:Let me guess: Nguyen

Maybe my California-ness is showing but this isn't that hard to pronounce.

Yeah, its gotta be the Cali in you that makes that easy. Its not that the pronunciation in itself is hard. Its just that an English speaker would never see this name for the first time and inherently know how its pronounced. For the longest time, I just sounded it out and said it sort of like "in-goo-yen"

rad lulz wrote:

Anonymous User wrote: No. And is anyone's first name Nguyen?

--ImageRemoved--

Both the shooter (Nguyễn Ngọc Loan) and the shootee (Nguyễn Văn Lém).

Richie Tenenbaum wrote:Standard convention is to put the American version of how to pronounce your name in parenthesis in your resume. Does your name have a more americanized version?

Example: Yehonatan (Jonathan) Smith

bk187 wrote:@OP: Don't you have some personal investment in your name? It's not like it's a shirt that you can change whenever it suits you (or at least I don't feel that way). Granted I don't have a name that people mispronounce, but I have a (likely somewhat irrational) attachment to my name just because it's what people have always called me. I wouldn't change it for even a 5-10% boost in OCI chances. Though if my biglaw job was contingent on me changing my name I'd likely succumb at that point. We don't know your name, but honestly I wouldn't change it. The people doing the hiring are biglaw partners and associates in major metropolitan areas. They work with clients of varying nationalities and likely won't judge you for your name (or at least I don't think they would). I imagine anybody who's going to judge you for your name likely would do so merely based on your ethnicity. Heck GULC even has a database of the correct pronunciations of various biglaw firms whose names are all made up of mostly European last names to help law students say it right. (LinkRemoved) I just don't see it being worth it to change your name.

kaiser wrote:Just put an Americanized name in parenthesis, like some other people mentioned. Thats what most of my friends did for college. Their "official" names never changed. They just started using what amounts to a nickname to avoid the very problems you are describing.

Anonymous User wrote:I know what you mean. That is probably the biggest reason I haven't changed it so far, despite the fact that I know many people who have done it seamlessly. After a while it's just 'me', and my closest friends always recoil when I mention changing my name because it's what they know me as. BUT having lived with a name like this (lord, I sound like I'm asking for pity or something, but that ain't it), it's really kind of a sting every time someone mispronounces it. Or maybe doesn't talk to me with a nametag on b/c they aren't sure if I speak English. Ok I don't know if this last thing has happened but somehow I don't doubt it. I feel like Asians, especially in my generation, tend to think of people with an Asian name as particularly fobby, but maybe I know too many assholes (then again, the world is full of them)? I can't imagine WASPs being that much more forgiving.

bk187 wrote: I don't think it's fair to attribute the views of your Asian peers/relatives to biglaw hiring partners whether they are WASPs or not. These people are in the 1%, they deal with clients all the time, and they have to act professional among other things. I would imagine that most of the people you know aren't as well off as these people are, they haven't made a living out of placating clients and bringing in business, and have generally been young students.

I also think it's unfair to say that WASPs (or any other established group) in this country are going to take the same view as the Asians you know. Keep in mind that the people you know are likely fighting to disassociate themselves from their heritage so that they can assimilate (which is why they view your name as fobby compared to anglicized names). I highly doubt that 40+ year old biglaw hiring partners have an urge like that at all.

One last thing I would note is that there has been a large influx of Asians into the ranks of incoming biglaw associates (check NALP, they make up a decent proportion at a lot of firms). So I don't think it is as much of an issue as you make it out to be. Undoubtedly the hiring partners at whatever firm you apply to have had to deal with names that they find hard to pronounce. As long as you don't take offense to their initial pronunciations, which since you've dealt with it so often it doesn't seem that you do, I don't think it's that much of an issue.

Anonymous User wrote:I see your point. And yeah, you're right that 40+ biglaw partners are probably more tolerant. Then again (and I'm not trying to dispute your point, just wondering what you think), my current-generation peers are the ones I will be working with as time goes by. I would hope they'd judge less as they get more experience through life, rather than cast a bad shadow. I personally don't care about these things much at all (again, why I haven't changed my name). There definitely exists a pressure to assimilate with an Americanized name, though. I think I know just one other person who never changed her name, and hers isn't terribly difficult to pronounce. I don't care if I FEEL behind the curve, but if I actually AM behind it in some way, that would, to put it delicately, suck.