Say my Name, Say My Name...

After years and years of stupid, lazy people mispronouncing my name, I've decided to make a command decision. If you mispronounce my name, when it is written, clear as day in front of you, I will not respond, for several reasons:

First of all, my name is pronounced EXACTLY the way it is spelled: A-N-E-E-S-A. Its not that hard at all. So, if you can't pronounce it properly, then it means you're either a moron who needs to go back to school or just too lazy to try.

I was at Einstein Brothers Bagels this morning, on my way to work. I drove completely out of my way to the only decent bagel shop within a 10 mile radius so that I could get my morning coffee and bagel. I get there, place my order and give the gentleman my name. He clarifies the pronunciation, I spell it out for him and he enters it into the computer. After I scoot down the line to the register and pay for my purchase, the next step is to wait as someone else prepares my order, with the rest of the hungry Sunday morning patrons. I heard someone calling for "Anyka's" order and I figured it wasn't me. The bagel man, called the name several times and was clearly frustrated. I was starring off into space, thinking about my time line for the rest of the day. Finally, he called out, "who had an asiago bagel with sun-dried tomato cream cheese?" I realized the idiot had been calling for me the whole time but had been completely mispronouncing my name. I stepped forward to claim my food and he looked at me and said "Anyka??" and I said "no, its AnEESa." He handed over my food, as he rolled his eyes at me.

He is not the only culprit - I've endured years and years of substitute teachers, job interviewers, and TAs constantly mispronouncing my name. And I was stupid enough to help them out by taking pity on their poor, moronic souls by stepping forward, properly identifying myself and then helping them with the pronunciation. Well, I'm not doing it anymore.

I have two theories as to why people have a hard time pronouncing my name. I've found that in situations where people first glance at an unknown name, they're too lazy to try and sound it out and instead mispronounce it by adding letters that were never there and omitting ones that are. Either that, or they're just stupid and can't read, in which case I SHOULD feel sorry for them but my days of excusing stupidity came crashing to an end when I stopped chasing after ex-frat boys.

Our society is now more multi-cultural than ever. Not every second person you meet will be named John or Laura or Mike. So, all I am asking is people actually TRY.
Its very easy...A-N-E-E-S-A. There is only one way to pronounce it.