BF2S Forums Good Job Texas Rep. Betty Brown (R)

Cybargs wrote:

I actually agree with her. It's just retarded you're using a completely different language for your name in the country where they speak another language. Hell, even in Taiwan all foriegners are assigned to a chinese name for identification, with their English name. I bet most of those Chinese-Americans can't even speak Chinese properly.

chittydog wrote:

Turquoise wrote:

Superior Mind wrote:

Such a practice used to be common place. That was back when immigrants came here to be American, not just live with Americans.

In the world of today, if you can't pronounce Quan, Chen, Liang, etc., then you fail at language.

Very true.  But when you consider that these names aren't originally written in English to begin with, the spelling in Latin letters is somewhat arbitrary.  For example, if a person were to spell their name in a simplified way in English allowing the average American to say their name easier, this wouldn't compromise the Chinese spelling of the name.  Chinese-Americans could still pronounce the name correctly among each other with the understanding that most of us simply find the name hard to pronounce correctly.

Chinese surnames are always one syllable and are usually pretty easy to pronounce for anyone with a third grade education. How are they going to simplify Chow, Chen, Wong, Soo, Liang, etc? They're not too hard as it is. Maybe she just picked a bad example. There are some other asian names that are a little rough, Vietnamese names (like Phuc or the infamous Nguyen) can be a little deceiving and Thai names can be like 20 letters long. Of course, anyone ignorant enough to say something like this is definitely too stupid to understand the difference between a Korean and a Cambodian.

Don't forget, it's not like all European surnames are that easy to pronounce either. People get my name wrong 19 out of 20 times.

Turquoise wrote:

chittydog wrote:

Turquoise wrote:

Very true.  But when you consider that these names aren't originally written in English to begin with, the spelling in Latin letters is somewhat arbitrary.  For example, if a person were to spell their name in a simplified way in English allowing the average American to say their name easier, this wouldn't compromise the Chinese spelling of the name.  Chinese-Americans could still pronounce the name correctly among each other with the understanding that most of us simply find the name hard to pronounce correctly.

Chinese surnames are always one syllable and are usually pretty easy to pronounce for anyone with a third grade education. How are they going to simplify Chow, Chen, Wong, Soo, Liang, etc? They're not too hard as it is. Maybe she just picked a bad example. There are some other asian names that are a little rough, Vietnamese names (like Phuc or the infamous Nguyen) can be a little deceiving and Thai names can be like 20 letters long. Of course, anyone ignorant enough to say something like this is definitely too stupid to understand the difference between a Korean and a Cambodian.

Don't forget, it's not like all European surnames are that easy to pronounce either. People get my name wrong 19 out of 20 times.

Good points.  Maybe we should simplify any names that are especially difficult but leave the Chinese ones alone.

FatherTed wrote:

FEOS wrote:

DoctaStrangelove wrote:

Well the place she's from isn't exactly a well-cultured area.

I was going to go off on that...then I saw she was from East Texas.

I got nothin'.

I mean there must be some intelligent people in texas somewhere.

then again, we elected boris johnson to mayor of london...

Man With No Name wrote:

its a valid point.  too bad the pc police came by knocking -lowing