#pronounced like nation

[comradekatara]

sokka hates the fire nation but nonetheless subscribes to their logic through internalizing his own dehumanization, albeit in the name of sacrificing what is necessary to resist imperialism. on the other hand, aang refuses to sacrifice his humanity, which is intrinsically tied to the culture that was deemed deserving of extermination, and by recognizing the fullness of his personhood and his intrinsic right to exist, he defeats the tenets of imperialism on an ideological battleground. that is why it is so crucial that aang’s influence over sokka, as an air nomad, and as someone who did not grow up under the looming shadow of colonialism and genocide, is what helps him regain the childhood he had forsworn in the name of war—his laughter, his joy, and his humanity.

#aang&sokka #aang #sokka #obviously aang performs this function for every principal member of the gaang #with katara it’s immediate (see: penguin sledding 5 minutes after meeting) #and with toph it’s less pronounced (id argue that sokka is more crucial to tophs process of valuing her humanity than aang although aang #lays the groundwork for it by being the one to recognize her potential) #and with zuko he has also been dehumanized by the fire nation but like. it’s not the same of course #whereas sokka and aang have largely been dehumanized in the same way #as victims of genocide #and obviously katara too #but katara has the same viewpoint as aang from the beginning #that she deserves to exist and fights for her cultural values #whereas sokka thinks that KATARA deserves to exist. that everyone does EXCEPT himself #so aang’s influence reminds him that he’s NOT uniquely disposable/sacrificial/unworthy #he’s a person too! #and he does so through the simple bond of friendship. through joy & laughter & fun #the values that were instilled into him by the air nomads #and it’s not like sokka COMPLETELY internalizes it #or that aang is the only one who attempts to impart this lesson #but it’s why their friendship is so important #because sokka accepts imperialist logic and aang refuses to #aang’s importance cannot be overstated #which is kind of funny to say bc he is the protagonist. the titular role #but ppl like to ignore that #which is crazy . but whatever

[qrovidcore]

so HEY UH

WAS ANYBODY GOING TO TELL ME THAT DURGE AND ASTARION REALLY DO HAVE THE SAME TRAUMA OR

WAS I JUST SUPPOSED TO FIND THESE PARALLELS OUT FOR MYSELF

OH OKAY YOU ALSO WERE TRAPPED AND HURT YOURSELF TRYING TO CLAW YOUR WAY OUT?????? YOU ALSO WERE THE SPECIAL LITTLE PET OF THE PERSON WHO TORTURED YOU, WHO IMMEDIATELY STARTS TALKING DOWN TO YOU THE SECOND YOU SEE THEM AGAIN?????? OKAY. YEAH. WE CAN COMPARE NOTES IF YOU’D LIKE.

#ALSO ALSO. THE *WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME.* THE BEING TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF WHEN FOUND DYING. I M #SCREAMING #DURGESTARION NATION. WHERE ARE YOU. I NEED YOU. #DURGESTARION NATION PLEASE #THIS IS A DURGESTARION POST I CANNOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH #DURGESTARION ;—; #IT’S ABOUT THE PARALLELS IT’S ABOUT HOW SO MUCH OF WHAT THEY’VE BEEN THROUGH IS THE SAME #IT’S ABOUT THE BEING A TOOL AND A PET FOR SOMETHING MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU IT’S ABOUT THE BEING MADE TO SOMETHING MONSTROUS #BEING MADE TO BE A WEAPON #A ND IT’S ABOUT THE CYCLE BREAKING TOO OKAY #WAAAAHHHHHHH #MY RUN IS ABOUT ONE THING AND ONE THING ONLY #AND THAT THING IS THESE TWO SUPPORTING EACH OTHER ABOUT FIGHTING BACK AGAINST AND GETTING FREE OF CAZADOR AND BHAAL RESPECTIVELY OKAY #bg3 #the paranoid android speaks! #also listen am i cringefail at naming video game characters? yes. #my durge is an elf i pulled up an elf name generator and picked the first thing i could reliably pronounce what do you Want from me #bold of you to assume i don’t name my actual d&d characters like this too

[sage-nebula]

> opens the official TDP discord

> immediately sees people mocking how M. Night corrected Bryke's mispronunciation of Asian names in the live-action ATLA movie

> closes official TDP discord

#there was a shitton wrong with that movie but fixing Bryke's fucking weeb ass mispronuciations was NOT one of them #''wow Bryke put SO much research into making bending based on martial arts!!!111!'' #and yet they can't pronounce names like Sokka or Mai correctly #even tho Mai is ONE. FUCKING. SYLLABLE. #IT'S ONE SYLLABLE. AND SAID LIKE A WORD IN ENGLISH. AND THEY STILL FUCKED IT UP #AND IF THEY WANTED HER TO HAVE A NAME THAT SOUNDED LIKE ''May'' THE NAME MEI IS RIGHT FUCKING THERE #BUT THEY ONLY CARED ABOUT THE ANIME AESTHETIC LIKE THE FUCKING WHITE BOY WEEBS THEY ARE #AND NOT ABOUT THE ACTUAL FUCMING CULTURE #so while the white washing and racist implications that came with it in live action ATLA movie were terrible #(i.e. the water tribe sibs should NOT have been white and the Fire Nation peeps should NOT have been dark skinned) #M Night being like ''u know what let's bother to actually pronounce names correctly'' #was not the fucking problem with that adaptation #signed - someone who wishes TDP fans would shut up forever about ATLA for the love of fucking god

[losttranslator]

like most Christian movies risen is cheesy and biblically dubious at times and gets loads of cultural stuff wrong for the sake of being recognizable to a primarily American audience but I'll readily admit the poor roman tribune's absolute bafflement at these religious weirdos who keep talking about love and stuff has me cackling unhingedly

Like, is it sound biblical doctrine and is it historical believable? No? Is it hilarious and do I enjoy seeing this random shmuck lose his mind going through what's essentially a very disturbing psychological thriller from his pov while the disciples are overflowing with joy? You bet??

The guy is dealing with horrifyingly decomposed dead bodies trying to find the right cadaver and previously sane soldiers going crazy and dead men being spotted alive and strange supernatural phenomena and angry gods and unexplained madness and religious fanatism spreading like a contagion, and meanwhile the disciples (and Jesus) are all like HELLO BROTHER WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR ABOUT THE BEST NEWS EVER :D :D :D

#Help my man Clavius he didn't ask for none of this #I gotta admit this is the first time in a while I've enjoyed any part of a Christian movie #even if most of it has me rolling my eyes and going “THAT'S not how it happened” #THE DISCIPLES WOULDN'T PRONOUNCE THE NAME OF GOD AND THE HOLY SHROUD IS BOGUS (for starters) #And there was no stranger - much less a roman - when Jesus appeared to the apostles #But I AM having fun with the tonal dissonance #Poor clavius is dreaming of blood and storms and his sanity is crumbling to dust and it feels like the end of the world #while to everyone who knows what's going on it's the single greatest thing that has ever happened and ever will #Risen 2016 #Resurrection #Bible movies #(Also in the list of things that get on my nerves no the spreading of the Gospel didn't hinge on one roman protecting the apostles) #(I hope they psychologically disturb that man some more he doesn't get to think he's that important) #(Centering a roman while getting some pretty basic stuff about Jewish culture wrong is also annoying) #(The beginning of the church are entirely and unambiguously JEWISH.) #(This character is like. 10 chapters too early.) #(Peter doesn't announce the Gospel to a roman until WELL after Jesus has ascended to heaven and even then it takes a direct order from God) #(And cornelius was already a follower of God and not pagan.) #(So Clavius just doesn't fit. And inserting a pagan guy as a witness to Jesus' most intimate moments with his disciples feels off) #The Gospel doesn't spill to the nations until God decrees it's time for it to happen. I don't like this romanisation #But again the first half of the movie had me laughing even though I could rant about its flaws for two hours

[orcelito]

Realizing my chronic focus headaches are likely tied to eye strain, so I am trying out a few techniques to hopefully make things better. Increasing the size of the text on my phone (which makes me feel like a grandpa, but oh well) & holding the phone farther away from my face. Also this thing recommended a 20-20-20 tactic - every 20 minutes, focus on something 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. The focus headaches are helped by sleep, but since I'm going to be going back to school soon, I need to be able to focus for extended periods of time without naps. This time will be different, which means learning how to manage my focus headaches when they happen, rather than just giving up on assignments in favor of going to sleep.

I also scheduled an appointment with an optometrist, since I'm probably due for new glasses. I don't like to wear my current ones, and I haven't since I first got them back in 2018, but they're almost definitely out of date by now. Maybe I can get new glasses that won't mess with my eyes when I wear them. It'd make driving easier, so hopefully I won't hate my fuckin life when I am driving. Who knows, maybe I'd even try to keep up with wearing them more often. I can only hope.

#speculation nation #i think im gonna try to get smaller frames than my current pair of glasses. #my current glasses are fine enough. but i feel like id look more mature with smaller frames. #dont need wide glasses to make my baby face even more pronounced thank you. #the optometrist appointment isnt until the end of the month. but that's okay. #in the meantime im just gonna do my best to be careful with my eyes and form better habits #so that i can better manage my eyestrain headaches. #just one more thing in the continuous pursuit of Bettering My Life....

[roseverdict]

.

#EDIT: moved organizational tags up so they actually work #rosie rambles #in the tags #hellscape in palestine #thinking about the whole. yknow. war crime situation in palestine #and it might just be my brain connecting unconnected dots #but wasn't there something going around a while back about how to pronounce gaza and palestine #(bc europeans/americans/whoever are claiming palestinians can't even pronounce 'palestine' correctly #except they're calling the localized 'palestine' the 'correct' pronunciation which is. so incredibly wrong) #bc it's been rattling around in my head for a while now. it's more of a falasteen than a pal-ah-stein. falasteen. philistine. #PHILISTINE. AS IN. THE FUCKING. PEOPLE WHO LIVED THERE ALREADY BY THE TIME MOSES AND THE ISRAELITES SHOWED UP. #THERE WAS AN ENTIRE SUNDAY-SCHOOL-FAVORITE STORY IN THERE ABOUT IT #VEGGIETALES MADE AN ADAPTATION OF ONE OF THE FIGHTS #look. i am very much way too goy and way too sleepy to consider myself an authority on any of this. #but palestinians were (seemingly) there first. #then israel (the original nation not the reconstruction we have nowadays) dropped in and was there for a good long while. #then other nations conquered and un-conquered and conquered some more for a while #then modern israel came into being. and like. ok. i'm Christian. this is a known fact abt me. but i'm pretty sure our holy book told us we #won't know the day or the hour of the end of days. and yet there's this push to send Good Jewish People back to israel that's spesrheaded #by…alleged Christians. who believe that jewish people need to return to israel to signal the end of days. #which. again. won't be predictable. #idk where i'm going with this #i just. i think i'm just getting way too jaded from hearing people irl cheerfully support genocide and being unable to convince them #that it's Fucking Genocide. or in one specific case #that it's Fucking Genocide. And That Is BAD #i think i just needed to straighten out my thoughts a bit before i go to sleep #just. if we were going to just look at the ancient past. both nations have existed in that plot of land. and peace would be nice. #however. #it is Very Clear that one side's definition of 'peace' is 'peace and quiet. because the Others are all dead :)' which is. Not Great! #augh.

[starscelly]

ok if god forbid there is a game 7. i am not listening to these fucking dickheads again. i will have to have josh and razor playing in a separate tab

#they’ve pissed me off this whole game #calling max ‘tie’ calling harls hanley. can’t pronounce a name right. act like u can’t possibly come back from a couple goal deficit #just straight fucking annoying no other way to say it #sorry!!! i’ve been kinder to national broadcasts this playoffs but espn will ALWAYS suck #stars lb

[kyouka-supremacy]

/

#First of all: sorry for vagueposting #Honestly I find it hard to consider bsd a stranger to quite directly referencing the world wars... #There's literally a character from an anglophone country who threatens and was fully willing to drop exactly two bombs– #of immense destructive power that would raze the city... There's no way that's a coincidence... #Also the Guild attitude is very much the one of the usa invader that greatly effected Japan post wwii... #It is particularly evident by chapter 15‚ not to mention the way Fitzgerald struggles (read: refuses)– #to pronounce Japanese names correctly... #Bsd overall just makes a very unflattering‚ stereotypical depiction of people from the usa #- shallow and apathetic and disrespectful of other countries' culture and attached to economic interests - #that like. if you ask me really really speaks of holding resentment for the post wwii occupation of Japan. #And bsd **is** an extremely nationalist manga‚ peoples. c'mon. every single foreign character is a villain. c'mon. #It heavily implies it's better being Japanese mafia than a foreigner. c'mon... #And just in case - though there shouldn't be any need for me to say that #- I'm not American‚ I have no personal interest in defending the portrayal of Americans - and I don't mean to. #I'm just saying bsd's portrayal of foreigners is a biased portrayal that most definitely was heavily influenced by the USA's occupation– #of Japan and overall looks with hostility to all other countries and is in that deeply nationalist because... It is. #Lastly it's not completely true bsd authors had little to do with war: maybe it was an exception in Op's mind‚ but let's not forget about– #Thou Shalt Not Die. Although that's not about wws so maybe it's because of that... #It's just... The way it's always a war of Japan vs. Americans‚ Japan vs. Slavics‚ Japan vs. Brits... #Where Japan always comes out as the winner... It *does* speak of a of a subtle not-so-subtle nationalism‚ doesn't it #I don't know‚ we don't know enough about bsd's great war™ to speak‚ but to me it just feels like a big “Japan engaged in a war– #(deeply reminiscent of wws) against everyone else where it spilled blood and suffered but came out winner despite fighting alone because– #we're amazing” or something like that aldvdjskdvks. #Don't quote me on this though‚ I should reread the manga to make a proper statement on this #Sorry for being insufferable political sciences student it will happen again 😔😔 #random rambles

[biblionerd07]

The way people from the east coast say “Zion” drives me nuts. It is not ZEYE-AHN it’s more like ZI-IN.

#maybe other religions say it that way? #but it’s especially grating when they’re talking about the national park in Utah #I can promise you I know the correct Utahn way to pronounce it #it annoyed me so badly in hacks #I’m rewatching righteous gemstones and that’s why it’s on my mind lol #the same thing happens when East coasters say Oregon #it’s pronounced organ just like your body #not ore-ah-gone

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Terry Pratchett about fantasy ❤

Terry Pratchett interview in The Onion, 1995 (x)

O: You’re quite a writer. You’ve a gift for language, you’re a deft hand at plotting, and your books seem to have an enormous amount of attention to detail put into them. You’re so good you could write anything. Why write fantasy?

Terry: I had a decent lunch, and I’m feeling quite amiable. That’s why you’re still alive. I think you’d have to explain to me why you’ve asked that question.

O: It’s a rather ghettoized genre.

Terry: This is true. I cannot speak for the US, where I merely sort of sell okay. But in the UK I think every book— I think I’ve done twenty in the series— since the fourth book, every one has been one the top ten national bestsellers, either as hardcover or paperback, and quite often as both. Twelve or thirteen have been number one. I’ve done six juveniles, all of those have nevertheless crossed over to the adult bestseller list. On one occasion I had the adult best seller, the paperback best-seller in a different title, and a third book on the juvenile bestseller list. Now tell me again that this is a ghettoized genre.

O: It’s certainly regarded as less than serious fiction.

Terry: (Sighs) Without a shadow of a doubt, the first fiction ever recounted was fantasy. Guys sitting around the campfire— Was it you who wrote the review? I thought I recognized it— Guys sitting around the campfire telling each other stories about the gods who made lightning, and stuff like that. They did not tell one another literary stories. They did not complain about difficulties of male menopause while being a junior lecturer on some midwestern college campus.

Fantasy is without a shadow of a doubt the ur-literature, the spring from which all other literature has flown. Up to a few hundred years ago no one would have disagreed with this, because most stories were, in some sense, fantasy. Back in the middle ages, people wouldn’t have thought twice about bringing in Death as a character who would have a role to play in the story. Echoes of this can be seen in Pilgrim’s Progress, for example, which hark back to a much earlier type of storytelling. The epic of Gilgamesh is one of the earliest works of literature, and by the standard we would apply now— a big muscular guys with swords and certain godlike connections— That’s fantasy. The national literature of Finland, the Kalevala. Beowulf in England. I cannot pronounce Bahaghvad-Gita but the Indian one, you know what I mean. The national literature, the one that underpins everything else, is by the standards that we apply now, a work of fantasy.

Now I don’t know what you’d consider the national literature of America, but if the words Moby Dick are inching their way towards this conversation, whatever else it was, it was also a work of fantasy. Fantasy is kind of a plasma in which other things can be carried. I don’t think this is a ghetto. This is, fantasy is, almost a sea in which other genres swim. Now it may be that there has developed in the last couple of hundred years a subset of fantasy which merely uses a different icongraphy, and that is, if you like, the serious literature, the Booker Prize contender. Fantasy can be serious literature. Fantasy has often been serious literature. You have to fairly dense to think that Gulliver’s Travels is only a story about a guy having a real fun time among big people and little people and horses and stuff like that. What the book was about was something else. Fantasy can carry quite a serious burden, and so can humor. So what you’re saying is, strip away the trolls and the dwarves and things and put everyone into modern dress, get them to agonize a bit, mention Virginia Woolf a few times, and there! Hey! I’ve got a serious novel. But you don’t actually have to do that.

(Pauses) That was a bloody good answer, though I say it myself.

#terry pratchett #interview #terry interview #fantasy #terry on fantasy #fun fact #<3 #the onion

[longwaytogallifrey]

I work as a notetaker/scribe for students with disabilities in my local universities. Shoutout to this absolutely batshit specimen of a lecturer

#taylor swit is how she pronounced the name btw #also i’ve decided that these jackboot-kissing types who teach these HR/yay capitalism classes shall be called corpoboos #like weeaboos. but for corporations #did i spell weeaboos right probably not. but ive had 4 hrs sleep and spent 9 hrs stuck on a campus #to do 4 hrs actual paid work #and i had to hear a university professor bothsides the fake moon landing conpiracy #mine #text #anyways i’m thinking about running off and living wild in killarney national forest #just chilling with the rooks and roe deer while the leaves turn and the sun burnished the mountains rose and gold

[lime-peaches666]

Just saw 2SLGBTQIA+ and it it's just sort of ah yes

#i honestly have been wondering what the most current alphbet looked like for my province #last i remeber it was LGBT2SQIA+ and kind of hyped necause even though im white and afwul at pronouncing english let alone other languages #i jist like strongly believe on the indigenous tribes should have a larger presence because this was their land first and its #do not forget fact #do not drop it because fuck yeah first nations rights #also they had weird pride clip art and i wanted to try and identify evey flag and i got through the lesbian flag and up to the next one bi #but they forgot the lavendar

[black-silverwolf]

Me @ the vnv concert: shapes and colors!

I really like the light shows and visuals they use. I know they're pretty basic but they fit the songs well

(Also sadly this time was my first vnv concert that was indoors and the audio mix was ... eh. The drums and all higher sounds were painful. It didn't affect every song but everything with like. Lot's of high drums or synth was mushy and a bit grating.

I saw a different band in that location years ago and it sounded fine so it can't just be the room, though it being pretty echo-y probably doesn't help. Also I had barrier then and this time we stood in the last row.)

#ei verbibbsch #vnv nation #I will never get over the fact that ronan always attemps sächsisch. it's so weird #like have you ever heard an irish man try to say #(it was honestly pretty well pronounced. but the mental damage exists)

[batshit-auspol]

have we talked about the woolworths debacle yet?

Sigh.

Alright kids strap in, because the culture wars are back and stupider than ever.

So there are two characters you need to be familiar with in this story before we continue:

Woolies (i.e. Woolworths) - One of two supermarket chains in Australia. Not related to the giant Woolworths chain that used to exist overseas, other than the Aussie one swiped the name because the original forgot to trademark the name 'Woolworths' here. Biggest company in Aus, and also the biggest employer. Not a brand anyone with more than two braincells would pick a fight with.

Peter Dutton - Man with less than two braincells, and current leader of the political opposition in Australia. Best known for bearing a passing resemblance to a potato and once demanding that a homophobic song get played for balance when a football halftime show performed 'Same Love'. His reputation is so bad that if you told an Australian that Dutton's favorite pastime was drowning puppies, they probably would believe you.

And to prove our point, here's the best headline a friendly newspaper could come up with to try spin his image:

The third thing you need to know is that in Australia we have a national holiday called "Australia Day" which is basically a scheduled day for everyone to get into a giant argument.

This is because for the last 30ish years it has been held on the anniversary of the British claiming the land around Sydney as a colony which was:

a) More the founding of an English prison then the founding of Australia, and more importantly

b) from the perspective of the people who were already living here, kindof a very shit day

Now not everyone agrees on this, and even those that don't 'celebrate' will often still have a get together with friends, but it can't be denied that we've shifted a long way from the days when the country used to celebrate Australia Day by kitting ourselves out in Aussie flag budgie smugglers, drinking enough beer to drown Harold Holt, and partying like it's 1789.

(Now a brief break for a real photo of Peter Dutton at a press conference)

Good luck sleeping tonight. Anyway back to the story.

As a result of this shift away from the trend of showing your patriotism by wearing Australian flag underpants, this year Woolworths decided that they were no longer going to be rolling out their box of southern cross thongs - on the grounds that "this kitschy shit never sells" and they are far too busy with more important things like blaming price gouging on inflation and installing self-checkout machines that think your canvas bag is a crime against humanity.

Never a man to miss an opportunity to act like a massive twat, upon hearing that Woolies had dumped their flag merch, Peter Dutton rushed onto the airwaves to declare that Woolworths had "gone woke" (paging 4chan circa 2009) and called for the country to boycott the store, a story which Australia's media have gleefully put on loudhale for over a week now in order to drive outrage clicks.

We at this point remind you that Woolworths is a company which, as we previously mentioned, basically has a monopoly on selling food in this country. Not exactly something you can boycott.

(Another real Dutton photo break)

Needless to say Dutton's dumbass plan did not immediately put Woolies out of business, however the relentless media campaign by Rupert Murdoch's minions did result in a bunch of innocent low-wage floor staff being harrassed by The Dark Lord's fanboys and a few Woolies stores were graffitied.

Allegedly being the 'free market' guy, Dutton also kindof snookered himself by demanding the free market not decide the fate of Australia day, but logic was never one of his strong suits.

Anyway, in the end we're just going to keep having this dumb circular argument every year, fulled by a media who love fanning the flames, until a politician has the guts to shift the date to May 8 (pronounced m8), and everyone promptly forgets this was ever a thing.

All in all, that's the long and the short of it. As a final touch we'll leave you with this real tweet by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, in all its batshit glory.

We look forward to the absolute dumpster fire of comments this post is going to generate - as is the Australia Day tradition.

#australia #auspol #batshit

[orcelito]

I love how my reading of Japanese has transformed from filling in every kanji with a mental "??" To filling in Most with the mental "??" But then im like OH that one is Tsuki for moon! Or kawa for river! Or sei that they use in sensei and gakusei (what it actually means idk lol)

月川生 just a small sample of kanji I have been genuinely learning

#speculation nation #still way too many i dont know but im GETTING THERE #also fun where im like. 'uhh i think that one means power but I Dont Know how it's pronounced' #or like above and below. i know what those kanji look like but i forget the words in japanese #i know boku and ima and watashi of Course. and sakana and fire and yama and naka #And More. actually a fair deal of them now #unfortunately there are in fact Thousands of kanji so me knowing / recognizing ~20 of them is not that many overall #BUT IT'S STILL MORE THAN BEFORE. and that's what matters 😤 #i went to the japanese grill place sunday and on the sign they had the symbols for fire and mountain #火山。and i was just like GASP I KNOW THOSE!!! #it's just such a great experience to recognize things ive been learning. ive been practicing reading japanese anytime it crosses #my path. which actually is a fair deal given that my realm of interests lies in large part with japanese stuff #(aka why i wanted to learn japanese to start with lol) #i was a lil disappointed bc id hoped they would have japanese on the menus too but unfortunately they did not #they Were playing kpop the whole time tho. which is a lil funny actually. sittin at a japanese grill with my white family listening to kpop #ft my jewish grandma asking my sister's chinese boyfriend about the japanese food & him being like I Wouldnt Know #idk where im going with this. it is certainly off topic. #ANYWAYS YEA! LEARNING! it's exciting.

[mariacallous]

Last year, the lead singer of The 1975, Matt Healy, managed to offend a whole lot of Gaelgoirí (Irish speakers) when he appeared to mock a fan’s name – Dervla – at a meet-and-greet.

Healy isn’t alone, though, when it comes to anglophone bafflement at Irish names. A recent study based on an analysis of Google searches revealed the words that British people have the most difficulty pronouncing. The names Aoife, Saoirse, Niamh and Siobhán occupy places in the top 10.

And it’s not exclusively a British problem: I always cringe watching US talkshows where the host quizzes their Irish guest (usually Saoirse Ronan) on the pronunciation of their and other Irish names.

I’ve heard every possible variation of my own name from non-Irish people. It’s not uncommon in Ireland; in secondary school, there were four Niamhs in my class. But I rarely come across an English person who is familiar with it, despite the proximity of our two countries.

In case you don’t know, it’s pronounced “Neev” or “Nee-av”, either is perfectly acceptable. The prefix Ní means “daughter of”. My surname is trickier, and has even tripped up a few Irish people; it can be translated as Herbert, and is pronounced “her-a-vard”.

When I was living in London, I quickly learned that saying Niamh at the counter in a coffee shop or over the phone to make a booking simply wouldn’t fly. This led to the invention of what I call my “Starbucks name”. Anything easily pronounceable with a simple spelling would do. Mia, Sophie and Rose were among my common aliases.

Speaking to others reveals a litany of similar experiences. Aoibhe Ní Shúilleabháin, a designer and teacher, spent two years at college in England having her name mispronounced and disrespected. (Her first name is pronounced “Ay-vah”.) More than one lecturer resorted to calling her “blondie”.

She tells me: “I was asked to say, ‘Three hundred and thirty three trees’” – a tongue-twister that does the rounds on TikTok – “more often than I was asked to repeat my name.” She recalls the lack of interest when she attempted to explain that Irish and English are different languages with different pronunciation rules.

Clearly, the sensitivities at play here are rooted in history: Ireland was colonised by the English and our national language was all but wiped out. A language revival began in earnest in the 19th century, but it’s never quite recovered. Ireland’s most recent census shows that about 40% of Ireland’s population can speak Irish. The English destroyed our language once before, so every little throwaway comment and scoff at our names hurts a little bit more – and ultimately becomes just tiresome. A handful of people even remark, “Oh! I didn’t know Ireland had its own language,” when I tell them about my name.

Writer Darach Ó Séaghdha is all too familiar with these difficulties. (The “rach” in Darach is pronounced like “Bach”, he says.)He hosted a podcast called Motherfoclóir, a podcast about the Irish language and culture, and whenever there were guests on with Irish names, “inevitably the episode would turn into group therapy”. There was one bad experience, he recalls, when he was told that his surname “looked like a wifi password”. But he decided to give his children Irish names, too. It’s a common trend, he says, “because parents with Irish names have been battle-hardened”.

Like the others I spoke to for this piece, writer and director Rioghnach (think “Ree-nock”)Ní Ghrioghair believes that a sense of superiority among English speakers is to blame for the constant mistreatment of Irish names. But she’s defiant. “We are going to scrutinise the British for any transgression regarding the pronunciation of our names,” and other things, she tells me, like British media claiming Irish actors as their own during awards seasons.

There is no easy crash-course I can give to you on the pronunciation of Irish names, but you can always try out “how to pronounce”-style websites (which themselves can be contested). But the simplest and most reliable solution is perhaps just to politely ask an Irish person – and listen attentively to what they say. I may have accepted that English people are very rarely going to get my name right on the first go, but I appreciate a well-intentioned effort. Just don’t laugh at it, please.