Week 10 Reading Response 3

In “The F Word,” by Firoozeh Dumas, she talks about immigrants that move to America, who have difficulties with their names in the English language. Dumas states that when coming to America immigrants know that their will be struggles, but had no idea that their names would be such a obstacle. Dumas said that when she was younger, she decided that she did not want a name that would draw attention to her. The exact subject of her essay is the lack of being able to accept and pronounce names from other countries. When Americans come across a name that they do not know, they try to avoid using the name. When Americans hear a name that is foreign to them, they automatically assume that the person is a immigrant. Dumas also spoke about going to the doctors office, and the nurse pronouncing her name wrong; which made her extremely uncomfortable. As a kid with an odd name in America, it is very common for people to make fun of the name by pronouncing it incorrectly. Often after moving to America immigrant become uncomfortable with using their real name. I have seen that people from other countries, that have uncommon names in United States, have many problems in the society. I have a friend from Nigeria, and when I met her she introduced herself as Cindy. Later I found out that Cindy was not her real name, and she was probably uncomfortable telling me her real name. When she applies at jobs she used her real name and often has difficulties finding jobs.