-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
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Although, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't immigrants in the early 20th century have to change their names? Requiring a more 'Americanized' version of their name?
-------------------- I'm slightly annoyed at Hobbes' rather rude decision to be much more attractive than me though. That's just rude. - PsyLiam, Oct 27, 2005.
Registered: May 1999
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WizArtist II
"How can you have a yellow alert in Spacedock? "
Member # 1425
posted
quote:Originally posted by Hobbes: Although, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't immigrants in the early 20th century have to change their names? Requiring a more 'Americanized' version of their name?
I don't believe it was an actual requirement but was done by some of the immigrants to simplify things for themselves. HERE is an article about that subject.
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world...those that understand Binary and those that don't.
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Christ, that woman in an idiot. But to make things easier for her walnut-sized brain, I'm going to change my name to Johnny America.
By the way, my great grandfather was a (corrupt) immigration official in San Francisco. He encouraged Chinese immigrants (in Chinese, right in front of non-Chinese speaking immigration officials) to claim they had more relatives so that more Chinese could more easily enter the US.
-------------------- When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum
Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
How do you say "receeding hairline" in Chinese?
Maybe Texans should take mandatory speach therapy in school so they dont have that assinine accent and can more readily communicate with the rest of the country...
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
I was always told my grandmother, whose birth name was Ludmilla Papež, had her name changed to Mildred Papesh by immigration without really being consulted, but of course I have no idea how much truth there is to that.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Probably had something to do with the immigration official not being able to spell names with diacritics. As for that woman with the IQ of a glass of water, I can't say I'm surprised by the comment. I don't know what local government is like in the US, but over here it attracts all sorts brain damaged loonies. I remember one in particular thought it'd be an excellent idea to divert the A303 through my front garden (and demolishing several of our neighbours houses) so the tourists would have a nicer view when visiting Stonehenge. Sanity eventually prevailed and I think it will in this case too. Indeed, if you look at her follow up statement you can see she doesn't seam able to even comprehend that she's said anything wrong.
quote:Christ, that woman in an idiot. But to make things easier for her walnut-sized brain, I'm going to change my name to Johnny America.
Only if I'm allowed to change my name to "Pip-Pip Jolly Ho Cricket and Crumpets". For the record though, my surname is Swedish (or Norwegian, I forget) in origin, my family have been in this country since Hastings (we think) and people still mispronounce and misspell the name. That's life, I care not a jot. On the up side, at least we have a very small area of Western Australia named after us.
posted
What I don't understand is : Chinese names are fairly easy, aren't they? Don't they tend to be little one-syllable affairs? If she had had a problem with, say, Japanese names, or Vietnamese names, or Thai names (oh, man), then I'd understand.
Oh, wait. To her, those probably all are "Chinese", aren't they?
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:For the record though, my surname is Swedish (or Norwegian, I forget) in origin, my family have been in this country since Hastings (we think) and people still mispronounce and misspell the name.
"Reverend" seems anglosaxon enough, no? I'm sure it's even latin from the start, as well. *preens fur*
Registered: Aug 1999
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quote:Nim, sometimes I worry about you. But then I remember that I don't care. At all.
Huh, that was a bit dickish. For an englishman you have a poor grasp of irony. Or maybe you misunderstood, I joked about "Reverend" being all I had to go on because you went to great lengths to discuss the heritage of your name but didn't actually mention it.. Maybe you're a descendant of some of our more ambitious ancestors here. But fine then, who cares. At all.
Registered: Aug 1999
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quote:Nim, sometimes I worry about you. But then I remember that I don't care. At all.
Huh, that was a bit dickish. For an englishman you have a poor grasp of irony. Or maybe you misunderstood, I joked about "Reverend" being all I had to go on because you went to great lengths to discuss the heritage of your name but didn't actually mention it.. Maybe you're a descendant of some of our more ambitious ancestors here. But fine then, who cares. At all.
Oh don't worry, I got the irony. You seamed to have missed it though mate, so calm down.
quote:Originally posted by Fabrux: You know, I don't think I even know your last name to pronounce it correctly... it isn't Trigwell, is it?
posted
People have enough trouble with my dad's name. He was born in Calcutta (as was), I admit, but still, how many times can you get "Neville" wrong?
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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