Quote:
Originally Posted by Vexx
Hmmm, let me refer you to an American phone book of almost any city 
In America.. "your name doesn't sound American" is basically a racist jibe from certain white folk ... just fyi. |
Foreigners still anglicise (Americanise is the wrong word really) their name when moving to an english speaking country, it just makes life easier. Most immigrants to America altered their names to fit in better (if you read the foreign names in an american phonebook, they're almost always somewhat anglicized). Do you ever see an Irish American with the name "Ó Murchú"? No because they all changed their name to "Murphy". Chinese frequently have an english and a Chinese name (just look at most of the big Hong Kong stars...).
Likewise if I moved to Japan I would probably have little luck getting them to pronounce Quigley correctly, I'd compromise with something like Kwiguri (or might just shorten to Lee if even that proved difficult).
I remember in my school we had a girl who cam from africa and had a click in her name, suffice to say her name was impossible to pronounce for us, the "click" quickly changed to a "Ki".
Nagisa isn't quite as egregious, but it
does sound awkward in English. Just say it out loud.
It's not racist, it's just being accomadating to the fact that different languages pronounce things differently. Would it be racist to anglicise a frenchman named Louis to Lewis? It wouldn't, but Louis sounds odd in English. Hence the anglicisation. I attended a French school for a while, and used a french accented version of my own name, with a soft zh rather then a hard J.
Most people in foreign countries use a version of their name customised to that country. It's just tedious not to.
Names are a moniker, you might like your name, but it's not something one should take inordinate pride in. And if your name is awkward, people will probably just get around it with a nickname anyway. You may as well pre-empt them by choosing one for yourself that you prefer.