OMG, this is really embarrassing and HOW did they let this happen? Why was this name butcher not yanked off the stage after the tenth name misread out?
I can’t figure out whether this was some sort of foreigner who didn’t have a command of the English language and not familiar with typical English names or someone trying to apply some sort of Ebonics filter? It’s very bizarre:
I don't buy this "phonetic spelling" thing, it sounds like an excuse for someone who should have never been up there reading out the names. They don't do graduation dress rehearsals anymore?
Posts: 35529 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: November 12, 2007
Originally posted by PASig: They don't do graduation dress rehearsals anymore?
I graduated college two decades ago, and they didn't do rehearsals back then either.
14 years for me. No rehearsal, but no butchered names either
quote:
Originally posted by Keystoner: Phonetic spellings? So it wasn't the reader of the names who was the idiot, it was the person who wrote the phonetic spellings? Good Lord.
We had to write out a phonetic pronunciation on a card prior to 'lining up' for the ceremony. IIRC, wasn't required, but if you wanted your name pronounced a certain way, it was available.
Well, I pray that person who can barely speak English is not one of the graduating nurses. Can you imagine her communicating medication names with her colleagues? "500 ml insulin IV bolus". Oh, she meant saline.
Q
Posts: 28743 | Location: TEXAS | Registered: September 04, 2008
I can understand receiving a list of name and next to it is their phonetic pronunciations but...that reader has to be a moron, as even her phoneticized pronunciations didn't match some of those names. At the very least, review the list, practice it, ask questions or, get clarification....sounds like none of this happened.
Posts: 15379 | Location: Wine Country | Registered: September 20, 2000
Could be a practical joke by the students, seriously.
Typically the graduating student walks up with a preprinted card he/she hands to the announcer. The card has the student’s name, phonetically spelled name, and accolades which the announcer then reads. The student gets handed a diploma case thing and shakes hands with the dean for a photo.
It’s not inconceivable the cards got switched as a prank.
They use individual cards rather than a list because not everyone shows up and there’s no good way to ensure thousands of students, most of whom have never met, line up in the correct order.
I’m sure there are small achools that do it differently.
Posts: 12373 | Location: SWFL | Registered: October 10, 2007
Multiple local reports here, it was real and I'd lay the blame on the choice of speaker and college which thought phonetic cards would mitigate the problem.
------------------ The plural of anecdote is not data. -Frank Kotsonis
Posts: 2142 | Location: Berks Co PA | Registered: December 20, 2006
Thomas Jefferson University Graduation Speaker BUTCHERS Names at Ceremony
Kyle Pagan | 3 days ago Crossing Broad
The Thomas Jefferson University commencement speaker is going to want this one back. I could listen to this lady butcher name after name all day:
Four years of lectures, hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, staying up til god knows when to cram for finals, and that’s what you get? What Starbucks employee wrote these names down? A moment you’ve been waiting forever for and the commencement speaker is reading your name like you’re the #3 pick in the 1996 NBA Draft.
I can’t find much information on what happened, but from what I’ve gathered in a couple Reddit threads, the speaker was given a list of names and handed the phonetic pronunciation in case she needed help and she just went with the phonetic list. That’s how you get “Macheenlo E Aubrey” for Meghan Louise Aubrey:
My girlfriend graduated in this ceremony and I was sitting in the audience so I can clear this up, although I too was crying with laughter throughout.
Basically, each of the graduates had a sheet of paper with a phonetic spelling of their names, which is what the guy on the right is taking and scanning with each passing graduate. He would then pass that to the speaker, who — instead of reading the standard names from the book in front of her (or the top of the paper with the phonetic spelling), was ONLY reading the phonetic spelling without even looking at how they’re spelled normally.
Now this doesn’t take away from the obvious incompetence on display here, as she read upwards of 50 names before correcting herself, but she also wasn’t having a literal stroke as the video makes it seem, she was just being an idiot and not looking at the way the names were spelled first and then using the phonetic spelling as needed, like she should have done.
Still, this was maybe the funniest thing I’ve ever witnessed live and I wish no one had corrected her, I could have watched her read nonsense names for hours
That last line in the post is so relatable. Graduation sucks. If you’re not the one graduating it’s even worse. Luckily I did the winter graduation. Some of us needed 4.5 years to graduate a rigorous academic institution like Temple. So mine was half the size and half the time then the major one. Still, it was boring. Could I tell you who my commencement speaker was? Absolutely not. Do I remember walking across that stage? Not really. I was just happy that I never had to study or go to class ever again. I just want to know how the hell they let this woman get through 50 names before someone corrects her? The old guy getting the card deserves just as much blame as she does.
My favorite? Easily Thomas Michael Canevari Jr.
That guy didn’t change 100 bedpans and feed pudding to some toothless old lady to not have his name properly read.
