How do you pronounce the name Nguyen?

[tkr4lf]

the actual vietnamese pronunciation has a lot more to it than just a simple "win"/"wen" to it. I can assure you that it isn't meant to be 2 syllables. but as we are in a country where the language doesn't have as many accents to add to vowels, any pronunciation that you use is ok.

So is it okay to pronounce it in-gu-yen? I actually did here it pronounced like that once, and that was on Family Guy, when Brian has to go work for Stewie in that pyramid scam thing, cold calling people.

Which one out of the pronunciations supplied in this thread would you consider most accurate?

[natty dread]

Let me just say band provides an excellent avenue for sex for even the most hopeless high school freshman.

I should have been a band nerd.

Think about it for a second guys. Its one of the only co-ed groups you can join in high school and 90 % of the time were left alone and the school even gives bands rooms that you can be alone in. Im not saying its an orgy going on, just that if you know the right moves you can manipulate a lot of those stupid woodwind chicks into giving you bj's in the practice room during lunch.

So "manipulating" someone into having sex with you is your idea of a good time? Sounds kinda rapey to me.

[Symmetry]

Let me just say band provides an excellent avenue for sex for even the most hopeless high school freshman.

I should have been a band nerd.

Think about it for a second guys. Its one of the only co-ed groups you can join in high school and 90 % of the time were left alone and the school even gives bands rooms that you can be alone in. Im not saying its an orgy going on, just that if you know the right moves you can manipulate a lot of those stupid woodwind chicks into giving you bj's in the practice room during lunch.

So "manipulating" someone into having sex with you is your idea of a good time? Sounds kinda rapey to me.

Nah- he sounds like a guy who has learned about sex from a bunch of juvenile movies, is a bit afraid of actually watching pornography, and would be terrified if faced with a real live woman.

[PLAYER57832]

I've always wondered and I've never heard it actually said, only seen it written. How in the hell do you pronounce this Asian name?

All in all a pretty pointless thread, I just want an answer on this.

Several people I used to know by that name pronounced it "N' Goo Yen", with a slight emphasis on the "goo" bit.

I have no idea if that is the "correct" pronounciation or not.

[KraphtOne]

I've always wondered and I've never heard it actually said, only seen it written. How in the hell do you pronounce this Asian name?

All in all a pretty pointless thread, I just want an answer on this.

Several people I used to know by that name pronounced it "N' Goo Yen", with a slight emphasis on the "goo" bit.

I have no idea if that is the "correct" pronounciation or not.

That, is a lie...

it is pronounced "when" or "win" or if you're listening really closing and the person actually has that last name they'll give a slight hint of the N as in "nwin"

no person with that last name has ever pronounced it NgooYen...

[PLAYER57832]

I've always wondered and I've never heard it actually said, only seen it written. How in the hell do you pronounce this Asian name?

All in all a pretty pointless thread, I just want an answer on this.

Several people I used to know by that name pronounced it "N' Goo Yen", with a slight emphasis on the "goo" bit.

I have no idea if that is the "correct" pronounciation or not.

That, is a lie...

it is pronounced "when" or "win" or if you're listening really closing and the person actually has that last name they'll give a slight hint of the N as in "nwin"

no person with that last name has ever pronounced it NgooYen...

Lie? Seems you are being rather arrogant.
The thing about names in America is that people often decide to use altered "Americanized" pronounciations. I did say that I had no idea if that was the correct pronounciation. However, that was how we were told to pronounce the name.

The bottom line on names is the truly correct way to pronounce the name is how the person says to pronounce it, the correct way to pronounce a town is how the people living there say it should be pronounced... whether it follows "standard" rules or not.

[tkr4lf]

I see what PLAYER is saying about the Americanized versions of names, but that tends to piss me off. It's like when people pronounce Nietzche as Neetch, or Neetchey. The correct German pronunciation is Neetcha. It seems to me that we should pronounce the names like they're intended to be pronounced.

[2dimes]

Often it's extremely difficult if not impossible to pronounce some names if you are not a native speaker of that language.
The "goo" bit is so subtle many english speakers can't even hear it and I'm not sure where it's produced in the throat. I know I can't pronounce it right.

[PLAYER57832]

I see what PLAYER is saying about the Americanized versions of names, but that tends to piss me off. It's like when people pronounce Nietzche as Neetch, or Neetchey. The correct German pronunciation is Neetcha. It seems to me that we should pronounce the names like they're intended to be pronounced.

Dime made one common point, but there are other issues.
Some people consider a new pronounciation to be original.. or use it as a means of distinguishing themselves from other family members or to make a particular political view.

I know more than a few Germans who changed how their name was pronounced around WWII, for instance.

Hmm... wasn't there a bit in Young Frankenstein about names?

[Woodruff]

Often it's extremely difficult if not impossible to pronounce some names if you are not a native speaker of that language.

It may be more difficult, but it is not impossible. I make a point of pronouncing my students' names the way they pronounce them, and I've never come across a name that I couldn't handle with just a bit of practice (whereas I do have problems with memorizing which ones go with whom!).

[PLAYER57832]

Often it's extremely difficult if not impossible to pronounce some names if you are not a native speaker of that language.

It may be more difficult, but it is not impossible. I make a point of pronouncing my students' names the way they pronounce them, and I've never come across a name that I couldn't handle with just a bit of practice (whereas I do have problems with memorizing which ones go with whom!).

The trouble is that if you were making this kind of error, you might not know it. Its not just that we don't pronounce certain sounds correctly, its that we cannot because we actually don't hear the distinctions.

I am sure your students correct you to a point, when you ask AND I am absolutely positive they appreciate your effort a great deal.

In kind of a reverse situation, I used to wind up copying other people's accents when I talked to them, without really knowing I was doing it. Some people thought I was mocking them, so I had to work hard not to do that. To contrast, both of my sons have speech/hearing issues, as did one of my brothers. They don't speak exactly like other family members, though the difference is pretty subtle.

[spurgistan]

I see what PLAYER is saying about the Americanized versions of names, but that tends to piss me off. It's like when people pronounce Nietzche as Neetch, or Neetchey. The correct German pronunciation is Neetcha. It seems to me that we should pronounce the names like they're intended to be pronounced.

Except, if my last name were Nguyen, and I decided I wanted to pronounce it Raymond Luxury Yacht, that would be my prerogative. I'm actually ok with Versailles, Indiana (vur-sales) or Lima, Ohio (like the bean) because, well, it's named after Lima, Peru, but it's full of people who are from Ohio, and pronounce things the way Ohioans do.

My grandma has a funny story about missing the bus stop for Goethe Street in Chicago because she was waiting for Goethe, not go-ee-thee.

[2dimes]

Often it's extremely difficult if not impossible to pronounce some names if you are not a native speaker of that language.

It may be more difficult, but it is not impossible. I make a point of pronouncing my students' names the way they pronounce them, and I've never come across a name that I couldn't handle with just a bit of practice (whereas I do have problems with memorizing which ones go with whom!).

I make an effort to do that also. Sometimes you only meet someone once for a short time. Usually they let you off too easy because you made an effort.

Sometimes I've got someone's name wrong and didn't find out for way too long, for almost a year I called a guy Garth and felt seriously bad about it when I found out. He shrugs and says, "It's ok."

Like I said, I don't know what part of the throat the "goo" bit is made at. Could be nasel.

[PLAYER57832]

Often it's extremely difficult if not impossible to pronounce some names if you are not a native speaker of that language.

It may be more difficult, but it is not impossible. I make a point of pronouncing my students' names the way they pronounce them, and I've never come across a name that I couldn't handle with just a bit of practice (whereas I do have problems with memorizing which ones go with whom!).

I make an effort to do that also. Sometimes you only meet someone once for a short time. Usually they let you off too easy because you made an effort.

Sometimes I've got someone's name wrong and didn't find out for way too long, for almost a year I called a guy Garth and felt seriously bad about it when I found out. He shrugs and says, "It's ok."

Like I said, I don't know what part of the throat the "goo" bit is made at. Could be nasel.

It took me about 3 years to correctly pronounce a Palestinien name. Even so, I am not sure I got it 100% correct, but folks were surprised that I could do as well as I did.

[2dimes]

I've had people compliment my French then I've had other people unable to understand me. I might be pronouncing things wrong but likely both times. I find asking someone if they can speak Honglaise before we start a conversation makes all the difference in the world. I suspect because they are paying attention to the sounds I don't realise are missing in my pronounciations. Particularly the ones typical of a speaker of English.

[tkr4lf]

I should clarify my position.

We should try to pronounce the names as they are intended, to the best of our abilities. If it's a matter of the sound being foreign to our language, then it's understandable that we cannot pronounce the name exactly the correct way.

As for somebody deciding that they want to pronounce it differently, I'm fine with that as well. Or a city, or street, or whatever. For instance, there is a road here in Austin called Manchaca Road. It's pronounced like Manchack.

It's when people (and I find Americans do this quite often, hence the Americanized bit earlier) do this for others that bothers me. Like my Nietzche example. I'm sure there are others. For some reason, the examples I can think of tend to involve German names and Americans trying to pronounce them and ending up bastardizing them. It's probably just ignorance, but I still find it annoying.

[2dimes]

English is goofy, especially if you start going back to bringing in Welsh and Gailic. Seanachie is pronounced Shaw-Na-See.

Have you ever seen the Ghoti spelling of fish?

[tkr4lf]

English is goofy, especially if you start going back to bringing in Welsh and Gailic. Seanachie is pronounced Shaw-Na-See.

Have you ever seen the Ghoti spelling of fish?

Yeah, I saw that...the "if the "gh" in enough is pronounced like a "f", etc..." thing. It's kind of dumb, but I guess they have a point. English is pretty crazy. I've heard that it's one of the harder languages to learn due to all of the exceptions that we have. I dunno though, I feel like there are many languages that would be harder to learn. You ever heard of those African languages that make use of clicks and other unorthodox noises? That seems pretty hard to learn. And Chinese. Either of those languages seems pretty damn hard.

[2dimes]

I was blessed to work with a guy who had a click in his name.He went by Tammi because nearly no one could pronounce his real name. It was awesome he was coaching me on the different clicks. I don't remember any of them now but it was really cool.

[PLAYER57832]

I was blessed to work with a guy who had a click in his name.He went by Tammi because nearly no one could pronounce his real name. It was awesome he was coaching me on the different clicks. I don't remember any of them now but it was really cool.

I remember reading about that type of language in Anthropology class. There is more than one language like that.

Some of this gets well beyond what is really pronounciation. Chinese, for example is "sung". The same pronounciation, given in different tones can mean something very different. When you start talking about "clicks" and "pauses" and even emphasis/accents, then you realize just how complex language can be.

To muddy the issue further, in many cases, gestures and expression matter as well....

[PLAYER57832]

I should clarify my position.

We should try to pronounce the names as they are intended, to the best of our abilities. If it's a matter of the sound being foreign to our language, then it's understandable that we cannot pronounce the name exactly the correct way.

As for somebody deciding that they want to pronounce it differently, I'm fine with that as well. Or a city, or street, or whatever. For instance, there is a road here in Austin called Manchaca Road. It's pronounced like Manchack.

It's when people (and I find Americans do this quite often, hence the Americanized bit earlier) do this for others that bothers me. Like my Nietzche example. I'm sure there are others. For some reason, the examples I can think of tend to involve German names and Americans trying to pronounce them and ending up bastardizing them. It's probably just ignorance, but I still find it annoying.

I would agree with this.
However, there can be a fine line there. Expecting people to "corrrectly" pronounce a name that they plain cannot is rather arrogant. Some people try to cover their inability up by just not really trying -- or making a joke of their mispronounciation.

I dislike the "correct" pronounciation of a town here in PA -- Dubois. In the French, it would be pronounced something like "De-bwa" (yes, I can say it.. just don't know how to write the French pronounciation ). Anyway, people from there and surrounds pronounce it "Doo-boys".

as a slightly humerous aside, a local barber's is Italien, Ritigliano. My then 4 year old wound up calling him "Mr Rigatoni". We all, including the barber got a good laugh. "not bad for a young fella" was the Barber's comment. Of course, we do gently correct him -- and my son does have pronounciation issues (is in speech therapy). A LOT of this comes down to just plain manners and attitude. I don't think anyone really gets upset if someone is obvious trying to pronounce a name correctly and just cannot get it right, even if they cover their embarrassment with humor or such.

[KoolBak]

Dimey.....I don't understand your fascination with having goo in your throat......does your wife know aboot this?

I only knew one person with the name originally asked about; he was a customer and he carefully told me "New-en"...probably dumbed it down for me but he was happy with that pronunciation......and I don't have a throat / goo problem.....

The mispronunciations that really bother me are the bastardizations of French words (having minored in french and with many relatives in french speaking switzerland), like "Boo-Coo" for Beaucoup which would be more like "Bow-coo" but really can't be pronounced properly without being a native.....and the most mispronounced one of all is "Know-ter Dayme" for Notre Dame....should be "Nuh-truh (rolling r there) Dahm (soft a)....

Whatever....we do as we please, eh? I need to be oot and aboot now! And don't get me started on how bad those silly Australians butcher the language!

[whitestazn88]

Can I just settle this as the only vietnamesian on the forum?

"wen" or "win" are acceptable. "nu-wen" is also fine.

ideally, it's "ngwein" but the ng is really subtle, the "wein" is accented with a slight high pitch on the i, and it's all kinda compressed together.

I'd say most vietnamese and chinese words, when pronounced in the americanized way, are too long. They're more often pronounced short and ugly. Like vietnamese and chinese penises. ZING!

[kentington]

I can't believe this thread is still going. Isn't this settled yet?

Can we find a Vietnamese person on here to verify?

[2dimes]

That's right whitestazn88 tell it.

I knew how it was supposed to be pronounced, the rest of you pale bad ghost faces can suck it!

'stralians are easy to annoy, just speak like either guy with "Crocodile" in their name.

I'm pretty sure that "aboot" thing comes from guys drinking and doing bad Scottish accents while visiting 'mericans were hanging around.