You know, I’ll say one thing for playing a samurai otome/romance mobile game (English edition of a Japanese game): you can memorize any number of “foreign” names if you actually care to. There is no excuse for saying “names that aren’t European are difficult/weird.”
Just now I fully rattled off eleven (11) Japanese names, only double-checking the surnames I haven’t seen used in the dialogue itself yet. I am not confused about the difference between Mitsunari and Mitsuhide. I am not confused about surname-firstname order.
I do not speak Japanese. I learned these names because I cared to learn these names. If you *outright dismiss* non-Western names as “hard,” it’s because you don’t care to see them as names.
And I say “dismiss” purposefully because I know languages AND names can be hard for people. I wouldn’t fault anyone for misspelling, mispronouncing, or forgetting a name. I mean blanket refusal to learn and/or mockery of other cultures’ names. Which I see. A lot.
And the moment I realized this was when I saw people I know who normally would have made fun of “foreign” names come back from seeing Black Panther and being instantly conversant with the characters’ names. Because now they had exposure to them and cared.
Anyway. The otome made me remember that. If something’s difficult for you, that’s one thing. But don’t assume that a name is “weird” just because you haven’t realized it’s worth caring about.
I need the clarify: I was thinking of people accidentally doing this with, say, character names they otherwise care about. Not real people in front of them who have introduced themselves where it’s just pure microaggression to say it wrongly.
It’s one thing if you wanted to get it right but didn’t, and you’re mortified and want help saying/writing it correctly. That’s what I wouldn’t fault. Not people microaggressively REFUSING to say it right when they know better.
That moment when you glance back over a thread and see “I need the clarify.” Autocorrect, my nemesis eternal
