“How do you pronouce it?
Written on August 31, 2004
“How do you pronouce it? Your name is pretty“, most (nice) people would say about my name. Some would say “That’s pretty ..
(I meant the new last name I newly acquired 3 years ago)
Sadly, it became a bit of an obstacle with my social life on the foreign land. Most people I do business with at work can’t remember my name. Some feel bad, they decided to avoid talking to me all together. My work email is so long when putting in the Name.Lastname@this-is-my-organization.domain format. People have been giving me nick names, now I’m confused what they are and when to use them. Those people got confused too. One guy referred to me using one name while the other guy using the other. So, who the heck are we talking about here? Oh…that Thai girl with long name!
It all started in Japan. 
My Japanese language teacher at YWCA called me Teetee. People at work (Thai Restaurant) called me Chitara (Close but not quite -_-’) and of course some called me “Golf” still. (More like GO RU HU) When I left Japan, I was last known as “Teetee” so I continue to use that in America while I was in school as well.
At one of my jobs here, I introduced myself with a name “Tee“. It’s when I started to feel that people made fun of my name 
calling me “Chichi” (here!) and “Titi” (there!). Well, I don’t even know why I got so offended. The two do have sexual meaning in Japanese and The Tagalog though. 
.
At my current job, I told people to call me “Golf“. That’s an original nickname my father gave to me. Of course, it got converted to “Golfy” somehow later on. My big boss (the old man. he’s like a father. he’s very nice.) called me “Jewel” because my Thai name translated to “Precious stones” in English. Some people who I work with over the phone (stranger) have been trying to call (pronouce) my real name “Thitirat” too. (God bless their hearts for the effort 
) Of course, some still call me “Teetee” or “Tee” here.
And in order to encourage employers to call me while hunting for job, I also use the name “Teetee” on my resume. (but definitely not to be used in The Philippines!)
So…What’s my name again, mom? 
Filed in: One Day At a Time.
