#1

Read this article and felt personally attacked:

Never met the guy.

#2

I interviewed someone called Bilal and he told me that he knew someone I knew. So I called the guy and he said ‘which Bilal?’. I found this surprising. He told me that the guy was shit so we didn’t employ him, otherwise we would have.

#3

I can call you Billy
and Billy when you call me you can call Bilal

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POTW — bit eraly edition
#4

oh god.

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#5

he’s going to be well fucked off when he finds out about his middle name

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#7

DiS FC have a player called Bilal. No one calls him Billy, obviously.

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#8

I don’t know how to pronounce Bilal :frowning:

#9

“I don’t talk to strangers.”
Cold blooded.

#10

My uncle Bilal (not a real uncle - was in fact our local butcher that my parents became friends with), ran away to Paris after it turned out the butchers was a front for a number of illegal drug actvitities. Dunno if he ever got caught.

used to give us kids sweets whenever we went to the butchers with the parents. Good guy imo.

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#12

I can understand is pain. Although, to be fair, when my Spanish friends pronounce ‘PJ’ as ‘Pee-Yay’ it’s kind of cute.

#13

I used to hate it at school when my French teacher called me “Rob-errrrrr”. I think this is just the same, but with less chance of a board rubber being thrown at you.

I reckon there’s a bit more to it though, if this guy’s so annoyed that he’s written a whole article about it. There’s probably half the population rolling their eyes wondering why this guy’s got this space on BBC news, but it’s not really about his name, is it - it’s about low level racism where people don’t make an effort to get his name right, just because he’s not got the same colour skin as them.

#14

how do you think you pronounce it?

#15

bill like a dollar bill
and al like al

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#16

nailed it

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#17

I’ve never heard a foreign person pronounce my very English surname properly, to be fair.

#18

Yeah no issues at all with him getting annoyed. Just an excuse to make another rubbish thread really…

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#19

I imagine it’s just another way of “othering” people and subtly saying that it’s not their responsibility to make you feel welcome on your own terms rather than making a little bit of an effort to recognise your name.

I do get anxious if I have to say someone’s name if I’m not sure how to pronounce it though so will usually just avoid it by not referencing their name at all :frowning:

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#20

Is your real name DirtyPJ Cholmondeley-Smythe?

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#21

Damn it. You know me?

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#22

Maybe more like Bee.

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