WTF! How to pronounce crazy foreign names?!
 

Hi

I am going to be the announcer/speaker at a sports-event tomorrow (Benchpress World Championship), and some of the athletes have names, that I have very little idea how to pronounce.

So I am summoning the powers of OOT! Help me out! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Mkrtchyan (Armenia) - Merk-tji-an?
Szczepanik (Poland) - Tjepanik?
Hsieh (Taipei) - Shi-eh?

Re: WTF! How to pronounce crazy foreign names?!
 

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Mkrtchyan (Armenia) - Merk-tji-an?
Szczepanik (Poland) - Tjepanik?
Hsieh (Taipei) - Shi-eh?

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They're pronounced like they're spelled, duh! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

I think your guesses of the pronunciations that you have listed are pretty close.

Edit: As a person with a difficult-to-pronounce name I will say that it will definitely be appreciated that you're making an effort to figure out the correct pronunciation of these names.

Re: WTF! How to pronounce crazy foreign names?!
 

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Hsieh (Taipei) - Shi-eh?

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I know this one is pronounced "Shay." No idea on the others.

Re: WTF! How to pronounce crazy foreign names?!
 

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Hi

I am going to be the announcer/speaker at a sports-event tomorrow (Benchpress World Championship), and some of the athletes have names, that I have very little idea how to pronounce.

So I am summoning the powers of OOT! Help me out! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Mkrtchyan (Armenia) - Merk-tji-an?
Szczepanik (Poland) - Tjepanik?
Hsieh (Taipei) - Shi-eh?

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1) You could ask them.
2) How do you pronounce "tj"?

Re: WTF! How to pronounce crazy foreign names?!
 

Tj = kind of like tchehhh

Re: WTF! How to pronounce crazy foreign names?!
 

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Szczepanik

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I had a friend with this last name... He pronounced it Sha-pan-iak

Re: WTF! How to pronounce crazy foreign names?!
 

Mkrtchyan (Armenia) - Merk-tji-an?

Meh-kert-chiyan

EDIT: I suck at phonetics

Meh-kert-cheeyon (short o, like in the word "on")

I'm so used to knowing how to pronounce the yan or ian in Armenian names I didn't translate it phonetically.

Re: WTF! How to pronounce crazy foreign names?!
 

This wouldnt be such a big deal if it was like the puzzle solving world champs. "Ooooo I pronounced your name wrong, nerd. So sorry."

But the benchpress world champs? That's not something to mess up.

Re: WTF! How to pronounce crazy foreign names?!
 

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Szczepanik (Poland) - Tjepanik?


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I played a bit with windows voice synthesizer.
It`s more like Shcha-paaneek.

Re: WTF! How to pronounce crazy foreign names?!
 

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Szczepanik

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My best guess is ze-panik, in the same way that Szczerbiak is zer-biak.