My name, “ALIOU” means “high, exalted” in Arabic. When my parents named me, they didn’t just choose a random name but a meaningful one. Most peoples’ names carry a strong cultural meaning. However, growing up in the United States they might think their name is ugly or find it hard that their name is always being mispronounced. This might sound harsh but some of it is our fault. By ours I mean us immigrants. For years, we mispronounced our own name so that it fit American mouths easily. Even we ourselves start to mispronounce our own name. I find this sad because our name is part of what makes us unique. I have heard of many different ways of pronouncing my name since I moved to the United States. People mispronounce my name at school, hospital and basically anywhere they ask for your name. For example, Most recently at my first college soccer game. I was a starter and so they were going through the name of all the starters. We stand in a numerical order and I had the largest number in the starting line-up which is #24. So my name was the last one for the commentator to announce. When it was my turn the commentator said “A freshman midfielder number 24 from Louga Senegal Aliou Ndiaye”. I think that was the worst pronunciation of my name ever and I have heard plenty. That was just the worst time. At school I will always have to repeat my name multiple times when someone asks me “what’s your name”. When I reply the following word or sentence is always Huh, Can you say it again or the most used one “What’s your name again”.
Events that people miss pronounced my name. For example, during my first college game when they were saying the name of the starting line-up for both team, the commentator pronounced my last name very differently that i couldn’t tell if
The pronunciation of my name.
One particular moment in my life that stands out to me from my experience with language and literacy is when I first moved to the United States. My Accent is different just like most immigrants and how we struggle about wanting to speak normal like everyone else. Some would rather not speak much or try to hide it. Others will even shorten their name so that it’s easier for people to say.
One particular moment in my life that stands out to me from my experience with language and literacy is when I first moved to the United States. My name has always been pronounced differently just like most immigrants. Some would rather not correct people and get it over with. some will try to correct them but get tired of it. The reason most immigrants don’t feel comfortable is because they are scared of being made fun of.
