Chinese Whispers

[Howyoudoin]

I'm interviewing people for a junior position on the team at the moment and HR are vetting the applications and putting the appointments in my Outlook calendar.

Just went down to the reception waiting area, looked around and said 'Karen Powell?'

A young gentleman stood up, shook my head and we exchanged pleasantries.

Once in the interview room I said, 'Sorry, what was your name again?'

'Karampal', he said. 'Karampal Patel'.

Ahhhh, I said.

Bloody chinese whispers.

HYD

[terminal7]

I trust that ''Karampal Patel' is not his real name. As soon as it gets round on LinkedIn that he shakes prospective employers by the head, the only job he will get is to replace Juncker (yes I know the job has gone).

T7

[kiloran]

Perhaps he was quietly spoken, but his name doesn't look very chinese to me.

--kiloran

[UncleEbenezer]

And what if there had been another candidate called Karen Powell?

Foreign names can easily confound culturally-conditioned expectations. Like the Anne who turned out to be male (and Indian). No miscommunication there: that's exactly how he spells it.

[Howyoudoin]

Word has got round that he shook you by the head as well.

You should read the thread before posting Snorvs. Someone beat you to the joke three hours ago.

HYD

[stewamax]

"Amid the tabards and scrivening and blazoning, it is always a surprise to find that any officer of the College of Arms has got round to marrying. One happily married recent Portcullis had Mary as his seventh Christian name. Nothing odd about that."
Christopher Howse - Telegraph - 19th April 2011

[AleisterCrowley]

My parents used to listen to Any Questions a lot and I was convinced there was a regular panelist called Dikta Verne (obviously related to Jules)*
There was a guy who worked for Verizon (I think) called Randy Bender


*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Taverne

[nimnarb]

Names can be awkward like the time a Mrs Penis was waiting to see me, thinking I was being wound up and kept her waiting only to look at her card and indeed her name was Penus but it's pronounced the same. She was Greek and I had difficulty keeping a straight face.

But the biggest problem these days is with texting and how careful you have to be when writing fast and not checking, plus auto correct buggering you up. Keep in mind that on a keyboard the i is next to the o. So on my boat dock, the underpart wooden structure had broken away and part of the decking had collapsed into the Canal. A business contact of mine, who I haven't had a reply yet in over a week, recently asked how I was....

Very well thanks, I said, but I just had a major expense in having my dick repaired.........

OMG!

[scotia]

I thought that the (in)famous letter written by a British Ambassador would have been mentioned by this stage.
Just in case there is someone who is not familiar with it:-
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/10/we-all-feel-like-that-now-and-then.html

[bungeejumper]

There are many people who go through life with names like Dikshit. But South Korea's former foreign minister, Lee Bum Suk, deserved a special mention. When addressing meetings with foreigners, he would sensibly allow a pause for the giggles to subside. A good bloke, apparently. He was assassinated in 1983, in an explosion that killed 19 people.

There was a guy who worked for Verizon (I think) called Randy Bender

I was almost a bit sorry for Bendor Grosvenor, the presenter of Britain's Lost Masterpieces - well, apart from being a rich git with kinship to the Duke of Westminster, of course. How the hell could a boy make it safely through public school with a name like that?

It turns out that truth was stranger than fiction. Young Bendor's antecedent, the Second Duke of Westminster, had a racehorse called Bend Or, which would presumably have made a suitable stablemate for Wayne Rooney's Norfolk Enchants. And that the devoutly heterosexual Duke was landed with the same troublesome nickname by his peers. Whereas this young Bendor's parents were sufficiently stupid to make it his official christian name.....

Heraldically, a bendor is some kind of an azure band. Yeah, right. I expect Grosvenor senior just wanted the lad to enjoy Harrow school.

BJ

[UncleEbenezer]

If we're into general names that look silly in English, let's raise a glass to the late Cardinal Sin of Manila.

When I worked in Germany in the 1980s, we had a local Chinese restaurant, and thought it fortunate its proprietors were in Germany rather than Blighty. They came from Fu King.

[AleisterCrowley]

Heraldically, a bendor is some kind of an azure band.

Yeah, right. I expect Grosvenor senior just wanted the lad to enjoy Harrow school.

BJ

Gold rather than azure surely ?!
Must have been a harrowing experience

[UncleIan]

plus auto correct buggering you up

When the Cub leader emails all the Cub parents saying they're taking their kids up the park and it's going to be muddy "so Cubs need to wear their willies". Oops!