I am in Arizona at an industry trade show. I checked into the hotel using my married name -- which ends in the traditional Serbian "ic".
Then I go to my room and try to get online so I can email everyone to let them know I arrived safely. To get to the Internet, you have to type your room number and last name. I do it over and over again. No good, something's not working.
Defeated, I call the front desk. "Well, how are you spelling your last name?" she asks. "Like it's spelled," I say slowly, thinking what an odd question.... "How did you spell it exactly?" the woman at the front desk sounds a bit exasperated. I spell it out for her. "There's your problem!" she exclaims, "you're not spelling it correctly. You have to put an 'h' at the end."
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3 comments:
Hahahah. Well there is a very big population of Serbs in AZ, so you can feel at home!
It's even frustrating to hear sports commentators sometimes - though they all get "Djokovic" right. Ivan Ljubicic still sometimes gets Loobychick. My grandfather's name didn't end in "ic" and my grandmother got an "h" added at Ellis Island. I'm amazed people can't get this part right; they might be excused if it were a surname with run-on consonants, but the ending should pose no problem. Not to mention the fact that, you know, "the customer is always right!"
the IC phenomenon will never cease to amaze me...
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