It's serious, don't even think there is anything remotely pretentious or funny, or even humoristical in this post. Just imagine how infuriated you'd be if all your life people would make the same goddamn mistake over and over again with the sweetest thing ever for you, your very own name? I am the worst scapegoat and unfortunate victim of Canadian bilingualism, and wordwide english dominance. I am a very comprehensive guy, but I am beginning to get totally pissed off, and as I plan to go and live in Canada (maybe even the US one day, who knows) because my fields of interests are all only pratical in english, I definitely intend anyone to sound out my first name right, and I really think now the only way for me to achieve that goal is to adopt it's Shakesperian version. I can already hear Trudeau, this damn assholish canadian prime minister that I vindicatively speaked about in the past in extremely mean, but still well-deserved ways, laughing in his grave, please be comprehensive. I just give it up. Imagine when I was 6 and I got a subscription in Quebec of a french Nintendo magazine, how I was proud knowing on how to write my first name right! It's Olivier, of course the french equivalent of Oliver. Problem is, it's so close to the english pronounciation, that everyone think the i is a typo, so all my life I had my first name butchered. It's sounded out "Oh-lee-vyay" and the i's in there for a reason, mind you, I understand you have no such concepts, but could you just please STOP REMOVING IT IN EVERY GODDAMN WEB FORM, MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTION AND EVEN CREDIT CARD ORDER I MAKE, I'M FUCKING TIRED DAMMIT!
So I was six, I just learnt on how to write "Olivier" with my handwriting and I was so proud! I get the magazine, and I see that "Oliver" is written instead of my beloved first name along with my last name! I go see mom and tell her: "Nintendo has made a mistake mom, they must have sent me this my mistake!", just what could she reply? Nothing of course, but if she did, I'd have killed the problem in the egg, but now I still live with the consequences of my choice. I write to an American friend, and I notice he also write Oliver! I tell him and of course, he is sorry and writes it well, this is what everyone does, but the utter ignorance just saturates me (in a good way still). Cause you know, after the millionth identical mistake I do not care anymore to put it bluntly. Of course I do not mean while living in french in Quebec, but when I live in an english-only society! I wonder if I should ask people to write and sound my name Oliver or Olivier? The most sadistically ironical thing is that this quasi childhood trauma surfaced out of the blue on GAF. I was reading it, and of course I could not miss the disturbing OLImario posts. That's right, every single time I read people nicknaming his Oli, I identified myself with such pernicious acts he' do!
I remember my highschool english teacher (who spoke only in english) she could not sound out oh-lee-vyay correctly, so she called me like "Oli, how are you doing today?", as many other english people who could not pronounce all the vowels correctly did. Sorry, but I want my first name to be more elaborate, so it's still a struggle. And even with most every PM and email I send my first name in french along with a "Have a nice day!" greeting (usually in french), if you got it that was a greeting, but also a reminder that the i was not a typo. I understand, but of course everyone replied with the missing i! And I prefered almost never mentioning it at all, I'd always get the same "Oh, I'm sorry really!" attitude, and sometimes the mistake would be unvolountarily made yet again, understand? I give it up.
But still, I fear the future constant in-jokes from my french friends, and I cannot help but feel it would be kind of a betrayal to all that remains of french in North America. That would make me look even more like an english canadian and possibly even a Trudeaumaniac, which I never was! Just that when I just HAD to inform people about canadian issues that just I knew (sometimes cared?) about, people knewing about my french-canadian being would either assume I was biased or that I had sold my soul to the english!
I now just want to avoid these two situations for good (in the future when I live in an english place as opposed to now), so which is better all in all, Oliver or Olivier? For these kind of pseudo-phylogophical and toughts provocating matters, I guess no place is better than the GAF.
So I was six, I just learnt on how to write "Olivier" with my handwriting and I was so proud! I get the magazine, and I see that "Oliver" is written instead of my beloved first name along with my last name! I go see mom and tell her: "Nintendo has made a mistake mom, they must have sent me this my mistake!", just what could she reply? Nothing of course, but if she did, I'd have killed the problem in the egg, but now I still live with the consequences of my choice. I write to an American friend, and I notice he also write Oliver! I tell him and of course, he is sorry and writes it well, this is what everyone does, but the utter ignorance just saturates me (in a good way still). Cause you know, after the millionth identical mistake I do not care anymore to put it bluntly. Of course I do not mean while living in french in Quebec, but when I live in an english-only society! I wonder if I should ask people to write and sound my name Oliver or Olivier? The most sadistically ironical thing is that this quasi childhood trauma surfaced out of the blue on GAF. I was reading it, and of course I could not miss the disturbing OLImario posts. That's right, every single time I read people nicknaming his Oli, I identified myself with such pernicious acts he' do!
I remember my highschool english teacher (who spoke only in english) she could not sound out oh-lee-vyay correctly, so she called me like "Oli, how are you doing today?", as many other english people who could not pronounce all the vowels correctly did. Sorry, but I want my first name to be more elaborate, so it's still a struggle. And even with most every PM and email I send my first name in french along with a "Have a nice day!" greeting (usually in french), if you got it that was a greeting, but also a reminder that the i was not a typo. I understand, but of course everyone replied with the missing i! And I prefered almost never mentioning it at all, I'd always get the same "Oh, I'm sorry really!" attitude, and sometimes the mistake would be unvolountarily made yet again, understand? I give it up.
But still, I fear the future constant in-jokes from my french friends, and I cannot help but feel it would be kind of a betrayal to all that remains of french in North America. That would make me look even more like an english canadian and possibly even a Trudeaumaniac, which I never was! Just that when I just HAD to inform people about canadian issues that just I knew (sometimes cared?) about, people knewing about my french-canadian being would either assume I was biased or that I had sold my soul to the english!
I now just want to avoid these two situations for good (in the future when I live in an english place as opposed to now), so which is better all in all, Oliver or Olivier? For these kind of pseudo-phylogophical and toughts provocating matters, I guess no place is better than the GAF.
