Dick Dasterdly

It happened to me at my previous Spanish location. One of the English barladies at my local thought she'd picked up on the Spanish version of my name, though she'd actually got it more than just a little bit wrong.
At first I didn't notice myself, as she had a really weird accent herself, from some remote god forsaken district of Lancashire.
By the time I did realize, she had already passed it on to virtually all the regulars and a few others besides and thereafter it stuck firmly with me wherever I went until I eventually moved on several years later,... suffering from exhaustion
It was never easy to live up to, but I had a great time trying, as it not only did my street cred no end of good, but really seemed to impress the ladies for whatever reason. To cut a long story short and take "the bull" by the horns that's exactly what it was in Spanish.

Lorna at Vicenza

Speaking of names and out of curiosity ..... how are kids addressed in school?

In Italy, at maternal or pre-school and at elementary (primary) they are all addressed by their first names.

Once they move on to middle school or high school, they all suddenly become surnames.

I was at a middle school class meeting tonight (kids ages 11 to 13) and after the preliminaries I said,

"pleased to meet you. I'm Chloe's mummy."

At least 7 teachers out of 10 looked at each other and said "who?" and one teacher said " surname *****" is that right Signora - you mean surname *****.

Is this military school type just Italian or is it European? When I was at school half the teachers didn't even learn my surname as Lorna was unique - but nobody was ever called out by just a surname.

fionamw

Well at primaria here it's definitely first names. In 9yo's current (international) school with more Spaniards in his year than in the village one () there are some repeat-names so it's Rocio C, Rocio M, Gonzalo D, Gonzalo I, and so on.

Lorna at Vicenza

Yeah but sweetie dahling .... I don't know if Rocio is a name or a surname.

Please enlighten a dimwit.

jackytoo

Some British public schools call the boys by their surnames.

I don't like my name being changed to fit locals. If there was a spaniard living close to me in the UK called Maria I wouldn't call her Mary would I

jdr

The clue is "first names" tut you will never get a lappy now.

fionamw

First names.. yes. (did say it, honest injun)... but what's a lappy

Lorna at Vicenza

Ok bloody clever clogs. What did they call you at school?

Lorna at Vicenza

I know - I missed it - but it has just been bluntly pointed out to me. A lappy is just a lap top computer.

As for first names - they do that at primary here too .... Martina A and Martina T and Paulo B and Paulo F. When they move on it seems to be more about surnames.

Chloe has been pissed off for 5 primary years as her surname starts with a Z. She likes Chloe, hates the Z as she's always the last to be called out for anything.

I forgot to metion in tonight's meeting that just for a change sometimes they could do like my school did - start the register backwards. Little differences can sometimes mean big things to a kid's little mind.

fionamw

Yes laptop but did I miss something or was it just jdr being obscure?
As for surnames....doesn't seem to apply here, but if it did it would confuse things because 9yo's surname begins with an S and the Spanish always but always pronounce it 'es...... whatever' if a word begins with S; though of course that would only apply in the Spanish part of the curriculum Plus of course most if not all people use more than one surname

Lorna at Vicenza

It's just an old joke that when you become a mod, admin send you a free laptop. They don't

Here's another thing - Italians alway put your surname first on bills, bank papers, in the phone book etc so if you have an English middle name like me, your envelopes etc. come out addressed to ******** Lorna Jane.

I don't know how many dirty phone calls I got with wanky guys saying "Ciao Jane." One idiot didn't know how to pronounce the J and said in his wanky voice "ciaaaaoooo Yaney" He pronounced the J wrongly and then strongly pronounced the E too.

As soon as it became possible here to go ex-directory, I did.

lynnxa

it's first names all the way here in Spain

they call their teachers by their first names too - even the head teacher in Secondary school

& yet there is no lack of respect, as you might expect there to be

jdr

Depends who was calling me, some were you handsome sod, some were you flash git ........... but teachers at primary was first names, secondary was first names for girls and surnames for boys, very sexist, but we didn`t know at the time.

scampicat

There was a man used to live in our village, his name was Graham, the villagers could never pronounce it so he told them his name was Orlando.

My friend Ken found the villagers wanted to call him Keen (and he has seen his name written down as Quin), so he was just about to tell them to call him Don Felipe when the villagers realised that his surnme is Spanish for Yachts and that is what they call him .

Someone who has a holiday home here 'spanished' his name to Carlos. When asked what his wife's name was, he said (making an English joke), 'well I call her Fatty'. So the villagers call them Carlos and Fatima.

My husband just adds an 'o' onto the end of his name, no problem, but the villagers abbreviate it anyway.

And my name is the same in English and Spanish, but I love the way the Spanish pronounce it.

Belinda Maria

JLFS

I presume as in the "wine lodge" and not veleros.