Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

bmks270 said:

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Sorry, that person simply can't read.

How did they get picked for this job?

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This. This is the only answer. She should be fired on the spot.

Reading names at graduation is a difficult thing to do.

I was one of the three who read the names each year at the high school where I taught. It was quite stressful to be able to get the correct card and check out of the corner of my eye to make sure the person was in the right place for the name to be read and also pronounce the name correctly.

I always attended the practice graduation and went down the rows talking to each kid to get the pronunciation correct. Lots of variation in how Hispanic kids wanted their last names pronounced: some in American, some in Spanish, some a hybrid.

Lots of weird names. And of course some kids didn't show up to the practice.

This reader is doing this task because she has been assigned it. She's a member of the administration. Doesn't sound like a native speaker.

I would want to see what was on the cards she was handed. Whatever "phonetic spelling" they were using clearly confused her, and her command of English did not seem strong in the first place.

Someone should have vetted her by having a practice run-through.

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Reading names at graduation is a difficult thing to do.

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Oh, you would take that position, wouldn't you Mr. Oldar My Seven One...

Yes, she had a terrible time with the syllables. Just terrible.

That's why I wonder if there was a problem with the way the names were written out phonetically.

A disastrous performance, for sure.

doubledog said:

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I would have issues if I mc'd a HBCU graduation, of course I would never be allowed to.

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No, you wouldn't. Of course I am assuming you have an IQ over 100 and would take the job seriously.

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OR, and I know this may be radical thinking, BUT….just hire someone that can read f'n English???????

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Sometimes even the ability to read English isn't sufficient. When the pre-op patient ID rules changed from asking the patient to identify themselves & checking their armband to reading their armbands with patient verbal confirmation, I freely admit that some of the patient's names are a butt kicking. Some American black patients have impossible names and they aren't afraid to verbally abuse you when you guess incorrectly. Foreign born patients usually try to help you and are more likely to simply smile when you muff the pronunciation.

Cruiser87 said:

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In December of 1987, I got a call from the registrar, or whoever, just to make sure they pronounced my name correctly at graduation.

Same for my daughter last year, or something similar. She mentioned it to me.

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Dr. Roger Feldman used to do that. If he had any question about how to pronounce a name, he call the student and asked for the correct pronunciation.

Cruiser87 said:

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In December of 1987, I got a call from the registrar, or whoever, just to make sure they pronounced my name correctly at graduation.

Same for my daughter last year, or something similar. She mentioned it to me.

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I got a similar call when I graduated in the early 90s. I want to say it was from the guy actually reading the names.

I have an eastern European last name, but a common first name.

I still remember when Texas A&M called me and asked me how to pronounce my name properly because they didnt want to mess it up.

I gave them phonetic tips, and wouldnt you know, they still somehow ****ed it up. And you know what? I dont give a ***** I thought it was nice that they called me in the first place and at least tried. I'd had my name mispronounced THOUSANDS of times in school before I was able to graduate. It's not ideal, but it's also not a problem. I cant imagine what it would be like to have paper-skin like these ******ed leftists.

And then here goes the Leeroy Jenkins of reading common names....wow.

Wait til these whitey's enter the workforce and figure out that basically HR is Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho. These same stupid ******s are the ones who figure out who should be hired and who shouldn't.

It's not going to be so cute very soon.

Ryan the Temp said:

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For my last graduation they had us write our names phonetically and then record ourselves saying it. It was all then sent to a voiceover artist who recorded our names, degrees, etc. and the recordings were cued up to a system that loaded the clip of our names when a bar code we had to carry with us was scanned before we walked across the stage.

It was extremely efficient, effective, and relatively inexpensive to do.

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If I had to go through that I would have just told them to put my diploma in the mail, and I'll skip the ceremony.

Ryan the Temp said:

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For my last graduation they had us write our names phonetically and then record ourselves saying it. It was all then sent to a voiceover artist who recorded our names, degrees, etc. and the recordings were cued up to a system that loaded the clip of our names when a bar code we had to carry with us was scanned before we walked across the stage.

It was extremely efficient, effective, and relatively inexpensive to do.

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That would have been cool if they had used your own voice to announce yourself as receiving your degree.

In '92, the person doing the announcing called me to check how to pronounce my last name.

OlArmyWalton92 said:

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In '92, the person doing the announcing called me to check how to pronounce my last name.

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In '84, everybody had names that anybody could pronounce

Tah-moo-may

It's the same name of the ****ing university you work for!

agent-maroon said:

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OlArmyWalton92 said:

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In '92, the person doing the announcing called me to check how to pronounce my last name.

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In '84, everybody had names that anybody could pronounce

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Disagree. Plenty of International students, even then

jwhaby said:

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bmks270 said:

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Sorry, that person simply can't read.

How did they get picked for this job?

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This. This is the only answer. She should be fired on the spot.

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Whoever hired her should be first.

CanyonAg77 said:

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agent-maroon said:

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OlArmyWalton92 said:

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In '92, the person doing the announcing called me to check how to pronounce my last name.

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In '84, everybody had names that anybody could pronounce

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Disagree. Plenty of International students, even then

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You're right. Truth is that nobody new when they made a mistake. Guess it would be more accurate to say that some students had names that nobody knew how to pronounce...

You have a point, I guess.

Speaking of 1987, the A&M announcers were not perfect. They botched my middle name "Brian" of all things. So I was graduated as ##### Byron "cough" Brian ####.

No harm done....it's a great memory!

El Gallo Blanco said:

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Ellis Wyatt said:

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Are we sure it's not so all of us "know what immigrants feel like" when their names are butchered by the majority? I think that's about where we are on the race issue spectrum.

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This would not surprise me. And if this were revealed to be the case. Every single liberal would be in support of her bravery and form of "protest".

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It's obvious it was done on purpose and the reason hypothesized was correct - to make the majority feel the minority pain. No one can be that stupid and be employed. If she is that stupid, then these graduates need to be getting a refund for fraud.

CanyonAg77 said:

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Thanks for giving Dr. Feldman the credit he deserves. He was amazing.

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Agreed. He was teaching pathology when I went through vet school and I think he called our names for commencement.

bmks270 said:

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Sorry, that person simply can't read.

How did they get picked for this job?

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If you watched until the end, they said she was given the phonetic spellings for the names, not the actual names. Big difference.

ABATTBQ11 said:

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they said she was given the phonetic spellings for the names, not the actual names. Big difference.

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I doubt it. In those situations, you get both

Ryan the Temp said:

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For my last graduation they had us write our names phonetically and then record ourselves saying it. It was all then sent to a voiceover artist who recorded our names, degrees, etc. and the recordings were cued up to a system that loaded the clip of our names when a bar code we had to carry with us was scanned before we walked across the stage.

It was extremely efficient, effective, and relatively inexpensive to do.

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Where did you graduate?

CanyonAg77 said:

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ABATTBQ11 said:

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they said she was given the phonetic spellings for the names, not the actual names. Big difference.

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I doubt it. In those situations, you get both

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I've seen way too many professional people who couldn't even bold a cell in a spreadsheet to be shocked by someone who couldn't print all of the necessary columns on a single page or correctly print something to individual cards like labels.

And as ubiquitous as computers have become over the last 30 years, I feel like that kind of competency has only gone down. Maybe it's just my industry though.

OlArmyWalton92 said:

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In '92, the person doing the announcing called me to check how to pronounce my last name.

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Walton?

A&M does it pretty well.
My daughter has a difficult first and last name, but they did pretty well.
You simply go up to the stage and tell the person your name, right before you go on, and announcer then repeats it.

Not foolproof, the girl ahead of her was Aubrey and got announced as Audrey. But overall, pretty decent. There were 800 students, and 145 cadets getting their commissions, so it was pretty efficient.

91AggieLawyer said:

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Classic!

After the apology and excuses were rolled out I got a bit curious. Here's a TikTok Link that shows the actual commencement cards with the regular and phonetic spelling of each graduate's name on the same side.