vietnamese names that sound funny in english

[Duc Tran]

I would like to here from all of you of the vietnamese names
that sound funny in English. The purpose of this is to help
some of us to aware of these sometime annoying mispronunciations.
Let me start by listing some names I know

Vietnamese English mispronunciations
============ =========================
Tru'c truck
Va^n, Va(n van
Tich tit
Phuc f..k (god forbid who carries this name)
Toai toy
Duy do it
Loan loan (like in student loan)
Duc duck (:-) my name)

The list should be longer. Please contribute.

A funny note here is that some time ago, after hearing the first two names,
(Tru'c, Va^n) an American made a remark that he got the impression that
the vietnameses like to name their children after automibiles :-)

Duc T. Tran
d...@dgis.dtic.dla.mil

[David O'Brien]

>
> I would like to here from all of you of the vietnamese names
> that sound funny in English. The purpose of this is to help
> some of us to aware of these sometime annoying mispronunciations.
> Let me start by listing some names I know
>
> Vietnamese English mispronunciations
> ============ =========================
> Tru'c truck
> Va^n, Va(n van
> Tich tit
> Phuc f..k (god forbid who carries this name)
> Toai toy
> Duy do it
> Loan loan (like in student loan)
> Duc duck (:-) my name)

Lam lam (the animal)
Dung(Du~ng) dung (the animal above's droppings)
Cu+o+n`ng cu*t (part of a woman's body)
Nha^t gnat (that pesky bug)
Thuc took
Minh men
Tu`ng toung(sp?) (thing in your mouth)
Die^m dim (as in lets "dim" the lights)
Nam Nam (but think southern hick accent)
The^. the
My~-Ha.nh my Hanh (oh yea, I bet she does not think
she is yours)
La^n LAN (your favoriate local area net work)

* and my favorate for last:
Nguye^~n New-gen (oh yea, how new are they?)

-- David ( obr...@vttcf.cc.vt.edu )

--

[T. Kim Nguyen]

Thuc can also be horribly mispronounced as "thuck", soft "th" as in
"think". I used to get jerks say "thuck you" to me.

Also, Nguyen: nagooyen, nyoogen, nyoojen, noojen, gnu-yen (this is
funny for emacs hackers), ad nauseum...

Re: naming your kids, I'm wondering what I'll name my kids -- will
they have VNese names at all? This of course depends if I end up
having kids with a VNese woman... My parents chose my middle name
because Kim cannot possibly be mispronounced no matter WHAT language
you speak. There's something to be said for foresight! (or 20/20
hindsight, as the case was partially...)
--
T. Kim Nguyen k...@watnow.waterloo.{edu|cdn}
"The last thing I need is a f***ing k...@watnow.uwaterloo.ca
conscience!..." {uunet|utzoo|utai|decvax}watmath!watnow!kim
Systems Design Engineering -- University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

[Huy Thanh Cao]

In article <36...@dev.dtic.dla.mil> d...@dev.dtic.dla.mil (Duc Tran) writes:
>I would like to here from all of you of the vietnamese names
>that sound funny in English. The purpose of this is to help
>some of us to aware of these sometime annoying mispronunciations.
>Let me start by listing some names I know
>
> Vietnamese English mispronunciations
> ============ =========================
> Tru'c truck
> Va^n, Va(n van
> Tich tit
> Phuc f..k (god forbid who carries this name)
> Toai toy
> Duy do it
> Loan loan (like in student loan)
> Duc duck (:-) my name)
>
>The list should be longer. Please contribute.

Common names that have not-so-nice English soundalikes are Bi'ch
and Hoa. As for my own name alone, I've heard the following non-
Vietnamese versions:

Huy We
Huy Huey
Huy Wee, wee (playground jargon)
Huy Oui
Cao Cow
Huy Thanh Cao We thank you

You could imagine the fun I had growing up (confusion in French class,
etc.) I find that non-Vietnamese will get the pronunciation right,
though, when you tell them patiently.

(The last example, "we thank you," is a cute example of how we
tend to look for familiar words in an unfamiliar language.)

Huy
h...@hamlet.caltech.edu

[thomas.ngo]

In article <36...@dev.dtic.dla.mil>, d...@dev.dtic.dla.mil (Duc Tran) writes:
> I would like to here from all of you of the vietnamese names
> that sound funny in English. The purpose of this is to help

> [ delete a list of VNese names and their English mispronunciations]
> Duc T. Tran

I have a name to contribute to your list. My brother-in-law has his name

Ba?o Lo^.c

to be mispronounced as BuLu !!!

Tha`nh
------
--
Thomas T. Ngo att!cbnewsj!ttn
AT&T Bell Lab. (201)957-2315

[08jo...@gmail.com]

Binh - Bin

[jaybull...@gmail.com]

Phuc NGO F**ck in go
Tu deep too deep
A Chu Chu train Chu Chu train

[jaybull...@gmail.com]

[jaybull...@gmail.com]

[jaybull...@gmail.com]

[jaybull...@gmail.com]

[mi5apr...@gmail.com]

Phúc, Đạt, Bích sounds like F**k That Bi**h :D

[raing...@gmail.com]

> Vietnamese English mispronunciations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------

> Tru'c truck
> Va^n, Va(n van
> Tich tit
> Phuc f..k

> Toai toy
> Duy do it
> Loan loan

> Duc duck
> Bich bi*ch (Yes, this is a real Vietnamese name)

> The list should be longer. Please contribute.

All these names are real names (burdens) that somebody in this world hase to carry, in case your wondering. Even though these names that you parents (most likely) created are terrible once you are in the U.S. at least your able to change your name leagally once you reach the age of 18 (in the U.S.).