* names
Posted on December 28th, 2008 by Alex. Filed under Language.
In foreign languages names given to towns, states, persons, etc differ a lot from the names someone is used to. For Westerners it is quite easy to remember “Washington”, “Berlin” or “Steve”, “Paul” and “Mercedes”. But if a foreigner visits a different country, it might be difficult not only to pronounce the names correctly, but also to remember them in the first place. In addition towns are being renamed in India currently, making it necessary to remember two different names for the same place. For instance: Madras became Chennai, Bengalore -> Bengaluru, Calcutta -> Kolkatta.
Usually I cannot recall names of persons. If someone greats me with “Hi, Alex!”, I usually reply with “Hey, man!” to avoid embarrassing moments. This happens even if I know this person for years. Personally I maintain a hit list of the most difficult names for persons and towns that I can remember.
Just recently a new name entered the rank number one in the list for persons:
- Kasireddy Jayaprakashreddy (Fortunately I am allowed to call him JP. Thanks, Madi)
- Prof. Dr. R. Bhakthavathsalam
and for towns:
- Thiruvananthapuram (in Kerala, India)
- Mamallapuram (Tamil Nadu, south of Chennai)