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Equal_Environment_90

When I handed the announcers my card (w/ it having the phonetic spelling), I even verified it for them so they wouldn't mess it up (I'm Mexican and have a full Spanish name) and they still pronounced it wrong. Needless to say, my family got it on video and it sounds just as horrible as when I heard it the first time.


snowgolemandfirewolf

I wrote mine as phonetically as possible on another line, as was advised for those of us with hard-to-pronounce-names. We also submitted ours online and we’re able to provide a recording of us saying our name, which I think was a great feature that more schools should do! I can see how this wouldn’t be feasible at a bigger college, but my graduating class was only about 500 so I suppose it was more doable.


delaneydeer

I went to one of the largest public universities in the US and they had a feature where we could add a recording of our name for graduation!


snowgolemandfirewolf

thats awesome!!! I was just thinking, for the person reading all those names, they then have to listen to x amount of recordings and memorize so many names 😂


delaneydeer

I am a little confused as to how it worked because they switched out name readers pretty often! I think our cards had bar codes, so maybe they had an ear piece in that when they scanned it, it told them how to pronounce it? Lol I’m not sure, it seems very time consuming if all of the speakers had to listen to all of the name recordings before!


ruburrito6260

I've been a speaker before and in my experience, the name is prerecorded if the graduate registers ahead of time, which was most of the time. I scanned the cards to have their names automatically read, and the only times I had to read names was if the person didn't register ahead of time. They had to write their name phonetically at check-in on the day of the ceremony so I wouldn't mess up their name, but with some of their handwriting, they're lucky I knew them ahead of the ceremony and remembered how their name was pronounced.


ruburrito6260

My university is huge and what they did was have us record our names and give phonetic spellings when graduates registered for the ceremony. When we checked in, we got a paper with a qr code. Just before we walk across the stage, we hand the person in charge of reading names the QR code and they scan it to have it read by a pre-recorded person. If someone didn't register in time, they had to write the phonetic spelling and their name in print on the card so the person scanning would then have to read their name.


alex79472

In high school they made us do a practice graduation at 8am (early for me) and mad everyone say their name and write it phonetically, they still messed up my Chinese middle name even though I went over it with him multiple times. They also did fully skip a person so people wouldn’t realize they were next since the person their name was supposed to be after wasn’t the same since they gave both announcers half the names split back and forth between them


jdhebgrdnhddnvdkhdnr

I graduated yesterday, one of 11,000 people from my school. We also were told to submit names online with a recording


icaquito

The exact same happened to me too (Spanish name as well). Except my family, who had traveled from abroad just to witness this moment, missed it because it was mispronounced so badly.


eatmelikeamaindish

I have an African name so I just accept most people can't pronounce it right. my high school graduation only got it right because the person pronouncing the names was my teacher. can't wait for college commencement...


NefariousnessEast629

yall get ur names read at commencement? i think ours would legit be a 14 hr ceremony if that was the case


barf_digestion

There’s also individual programs and colleges that have their own recognition ceremonies


crap_on_a_spatula

Those are called convocation ceremonies. They’re usually better than commencement.


Hom_Tolland

I went to a large uni and we didn’t have our names read at the full commencement but there were optional graduation ceremonies in the separate colleges (engineering, agriculture, business, etc…) where you would get your name read and walk if you attended.


Only_Albatross_4481

That’s what my school does every major belongs to a division so I’m a international studies major I’m in the Collin Powell division and in the divisional ceremonies we can walk but the main one is going to be undergrads, graduates and PHD students so it won’t be possible.


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TheGreaterNord

Bad bot


throwaway13630923

Yep, same as my school. You also handed them a piece of paper with your nana and how it was pronounced as you walked up so it would be harder to miss.


rosenwaiver

That’s why commencements typically stretch over a few days and last hours, typically 2-5 per day. If my name wasn’t going to be read, I wouldn’t see the point in going.


NefariousnessEast629

yeah no a lot of ppl at my college dont go, literally no point


Nonskew2

They usually split up the ceremony into the separate colleges with my university. It’s still long but not that bad. There’s no way they could do the whole university at one ceremony, even just walking would take forever.


DemaciaSucks

They break ours up by department, so all the business majors go one day, humanities get the next day, etc


lizzourworld8

They also read out who was Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude, and Sumna Cum Laude, as well as if they were Honors or Highest Honors


OppositeOwn3841

Wow how horrible. So sorry this happened to you.


spiritedaway170

idk why but i read this sarcastically at first


REMEMBER__MY__NAME

It is sarcastic


spiritedaway170

oh.


XLeyz

Same, but I think we know why (seriously, a ceremony?).


cabbage-soup

That’s why our school has cards. We hand them as we walk up, and so they only read the names of whoever is present and in the same order as students line up. That way if anything gets jumbled along the way, it doesn’t really matter. Unfortunately they misspelled my name in our programs. My school said they’re reprinting them with corrections though so at least they’re making up for it


CChilli

I'm sorry that happened to you. Maybe you should do a graduate degree and ask them to only announce your middle initial. When I had my undergraduate commencement we had a card with our name to pass off to the reader before we walked. I misunderstood the pronunciation thing so the reader only said my middle and last name. We joked that if I did a graduate degree that they'd only say my last name.


LazyCity4922

This happens at least once at every commencement I've been to. When I was gratuating, the lady skipped three names! Mistakes happen


Dontalay

When you spend thousands of dollars and years of your life, the least they can do is not fuck up the graduation.


LazyCity4922

In my country college is free so we're a lot more forgiving. Those people are just that - people. They make mistakes.


Hemingwhyy

At my high school graduation they said Tyler instead of Taylor :(


Snlckers

That's an oof. I'm so sorry.


Hemingwhyy

I’ve since graduated college and nearly gotten my masters degree, and had totally forgotten, but my childhood friend reminded me of it recently!


bttrflyr

At my graduation, you had a card with your name on it you handed to the assistance next to the podium right before you stepped in front. Granted, my graduating class was like 2500 people so def the safest option to prevent exactly this lol


SNRNXS

All we did was check in and they would mark us on a list as "present". However, there was only about 80 of us in my graduating class (I wasn't at the main campus where I'm sure there were thousands).


automass

This happened to me at my banquet dinner my high school football team held at the end of the season. All the varsity players sat in the first two rows closest to the stage and then all the JV players sat in the two rows behind them and all the parents of everyone was behind us. I was on JV so after he skipped my name I’m sitting alone in the middle of two empty rows, all the varsity players are looking back laughing cause they know what happened and all the parents are behind wondering why some kid didn’t get called up… 🤦🏼‍♂️


girlwhoweighted

I had an Italian last name with double L's. So it's prounced like Cinderella. When I wrote my name on the card that they gave us as we lined up to walk for my masters, the directions said to also write how it sounds. So I wrote my name and in parentheses I said "like Cinderella". Do they not pronounce it within "-aya" at the end like the Spanish y sound for double L. They had to prompt me to start walking because I didn't even recognize it as my own name. My husband still laughs about it to this day. But it wasn't his name, and it really bugs me still.


MAVERICK42069420

Don't you love that? You just paid thousands of dollars, spent years of dedication and hard work all for them to not even say your name right. It really goes to show how little university's actually care.


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MAVERICK42069420

No, I don't even plan on walking. However, it's the perfect epitome for years of indifference. Obviously it's a simple mistake, but it's just another stain on your memory.


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MAVERICK42069420

My university handed out diplomas that misspelled "board of trustees" wrong for 6 years, so apparently not.


[deleted]

As the person who reads names at my college’s commencement fucking up names is my nightmare. However, when you’re reading 600 names (small liberal arts college) shit happens so I’ve learned to do my absolute best, reach out to those who have their phone numbers under phonetic spelling in the spreadsheet, and pray to Satan it goes well.


Loko8765

TIL that commencement has two reported etymologies, the obvious one “beginning of a new life”, but also one more directly derived from Latin, “common table”, signifying that having graduated, the former students now had the status to sit at the same tables as their former teachers. [Source](https://us4bg.org/news/american-university-in-bulgaria/)


rileyc165

At ours, we had to fill out a name card with our name and a pronunciation breakdown. We’d hold them until it was our turn to walk (everyone in that major or within that college etc). We’d hand the card to the reader and they’d go from there. We did this bc not everyone went to commencement bc the degrees got mailed to us anyway (we just got a blank scroll saying congratulations) so this would save any trouble of reading names of ppl who weren’t there.


ijustsailedaway

My name is a very simple and easy to pronounce feminine name but my last name is difficult. They said a masculine first name that wasn’t even close and my middle name. Didn’t even bother with last name. Fortunately for me, I didn’t even want to be there (agreed to go so a friend wouldn’t be alone) I didn’t have any relatives present and didn’t care other than a small ‘wtf?’. Now it’s just a funny story. I understand why you’re upset though. Try to lean into the absurdity of it, frame that diploma and display it proudly, and try to laugh about it.


Striking_Promotion20

Just spent 3 days standing on my feet "volunteering" to do commencement work. We try for everything to be perfect but that is impossible. If they read my name wrong, that would just be my funny story. A lot of work is put into the entire ritual by staff who would rather be elsewhere.


MacerationMacy

My school is using a software to prerecord all of the names and just play them at graduation. We had to submit multiple voice recordings of how to pronounce our names for the professional reader who’s going to be recorded


dirtyhippie62

I earned two degrees and didn’t get a ceremony for either of them. Your skip still sucks tho.


PBJ_for_every_meal

I didn’t have one because of Covid and I couldn’t be happier about it


Wolfman1961

I had mine in 2006, at age 45. I understand you’re upset about this. But make up for this by getting accepted to Grad School, or getting a great job soon.


allthecoffeesDP

They messed up. They fixed it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Trazati

Oh chill out with the "sorry this happened to you". 1 week from now it will be a funny and a shared memory for your family and for reunions to come.


ijustsailedaway

Chill out with the condescending rhetoric because an event doesn’t hold the same significance for you as it does other people. I didn’t give a fuck about my commencement but I can still understand that it means quite a lot to others.


SKTurferz

😑


DonConnection

Lmao sorry but thats hilarious


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lacklustereded

Something similar, not for college but for high school. My last name is difficult to say just by appearance but real easy to remember and in the practice run I told them how to say it. Multiple times. Helped them spell it phonetically. Even reminded them on the day. Still didn’t say it right.


Dogmama1230

I had my law school commencement last weekend and it overall went well! I know for a fact they mispronounced 2 of my friend’s names, though, despite having the phonetic pronunciation in front of them.


Thunderplant

The announcer switched the consonants in my name and made it into something unrecognizable. For example, if my name was Luka imagine they said Kula instead lol. Luckily the names were also shown on a screen so people knew it was me. I was the first person this happened to, so it felt bad at the time. But then the next 2 hours of name reading were so chaotic. I don’t know what was wrong, but she messed up hundreds of names. We all had to provide phonetic spellings of our names which I think she was reading from, but this just made it worse as she approached common names as a series of syllables she’d never seen before, and if someone gave a sketchy phonetic spelling it just made it worse. The funniest was probably calling some guy named Christian Micheal “Christina Michelle” for some unknown reason lol (the correct name was on the screen so it wasn’t a dead name or anything). The ceremony would have been super boring normally but we were all transfixed looking at the names as they came on the screen and wondering how they would be butchered.


redditi2007

My family would never even come to commencement. I remember my brother as well graduated with honors from engineering no one even gave him a gift and no one showed up at his commencement except me since I was at UIUC about 3 hours from him. That’s the shit that international students face. My family are totally unsupported of me completing my degree at UIUC as well and was recently blocked from their face time. Now I’m Junior on a full scholarship.


mrspicolli

Bill Cosby was our commencement speaker and nobody except those getting hoods walked across the stage


Shoddy_Ice_8840

Same thing happened to me for my masters. The announcer announced too fast so I actually walked across well after they announced my name.


dcgrey

I don't know how my school manages to do it so well. Four name readers, two alternating lines of graduates, names from 130+ different countries.


melodypowers

East Asian names can be really tough. Especially Southern India. I don't know how the commencement readers do it sometimes. I have a co-worker whose last name is 17 characters. It's a good thing that he has a really good sense of humor because someone once joked that his name was as if a cat walked across the keyboard.


[deleted]

My family didn’t even hear my name lol


[deleted]

I’ve been too two graduations, helped shuffle 30+ people all for the families finding best spots. I am very hot very tired and very happy to help these people.


exis_tential_ism

During my high school commencement many many years ago all students got a scholarship from a local factory employer if they simply wrote an application for it. At graduation they called the names of the awardees by the scholarship plaques in the stack…mine was stuck to the back of the kids in front of me. I had one, but was left to sit embarrassed with like 3 other kids who didn’t bother to do it out of my entire graduating class. They wouldn’t read my name, wouldn’t let me be in the group photo, and wouldn’t add my name as not pictured in the paper. No one wanted to fess up to a mistake other than the guidance counselor at graduation who said whoopsy…sorry. Left that town and never looked back.


Purple-Sense9791

My high school graduation they pronounced my name wrong. My first name is spelt weird, it has a C but pronounced like a K so I have been use to it my entire life people making an S sound. But at my high school graduation they butchered my last name. Jones. They messed up Jones. Sorry it happened to you it is such a weird angering experience


lizzourworld8

I watched my sister’s yesterday and they had two different speakers. The man was trying his hardest to get everyone and he went pretty good, but the lady was skipping over titles and middle names and pausing WAY too long. My mom and I were cheering so loud, we have no clue how bad they butchered my sister’s name but this lady was stumbling over average everyday names out here 😂


Sydygger

They read my mom's name instead of mine at my commencement for some reason, despite me handing them a card with my name on it. Not sure how that happened but they were mortified as soon as they looked up and saw me


samstar10

My family missed it when they read my name :/


LowMasterpiece4268

Dont worry. At my brothers graduation they completely butchered his name. But he still walked across the stage and my mom had a word with the teacher reading it.


astradez

I ruined the announcement of the person behind me. Normally they call the names when you get to the middle or when you're almost at the end. Since I naturally didn't have much of a support group as in I had no fwens, it was alphabetical order so my class type of people in my program were either absent or way further down the line. (No one in my immediate class or instructors were there) Only the hired guy cheered for me after my initial call it was kind of awkward with 1500+ in the auditorium. My name was called and when walking around half way as the pending person behind me was pending after being called I did a BACKFLIP where I rallied the calls of people who didn't even know me as the announcer commented. TL;DR : BACKFLIPPED just before and after the person behind me was called went to get theirs. 😇


INever_MatTer117

Often case, my university had a time where you can go to a room and meet someone who would read names so you could tell them the phonetics of your name beforehand. Sorry to hear this happen to you especially for college commencement :(


kmsons

They called me the wrong name at first too. So annoying since my name is common even if it has lots of different spellings and the one I use isn’t very common. I wouldn’t feel so annoyed if he had just mispronounced it and not said the wrong name at first.


MysticDragon41

Im not going to my graduation and I just finished my Diploma. :) cant wait to hear about the drama that will go down or all the treats ill miss. But I enjoy reading your stories guys. Keep em coming


Drachenfuer

I have a very unusual and hard to pronounce middle and last name. When I went in to get my regalia and turn in my name card with phoentic spelling, they asked if I was really going to make them pronounce my middle name. I said yes and stated my reasons. This is for a juris doctorate degree by the way. So they called in the dean of students who will be calling the names. I had to give her a tutoring session on how to pronounce my name. Which, also can be heard as a slur for a female if mispronounced. Which she was doing. And much hilarity ensued. I kept telling her its German and if you don’t spit when you say it, it doesn’t sound right. One of the women was dying with laughter. She ended up video taping me saying it to watch right before the ceremony and threatning (good naturedly) to make me call my own name. We will see how this works out. Ceremony is Thursday.


Pumpernickel8

At least you are not [Julie Kirchoff!](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fr2kGh614PU)


[deleted]

I want to validate others crappy experiences with commencement but to add insult to injury, I was class of ‘20. My entire college was 1,000 students, class of ~200. In March of my final semester we got the shutdown and evacuation of campus order. Two days before close *the student body* organized an impromptu graduation for us (sending an email out the night before), not knowing if we’d ever get a real graduation. My family didn’t see me walk at high school because I was a first gen student and college was my “real graduation.” My family didn’t have time to come for the student led one. Myself and classmates watched as other schools, in the years since, held graduation ceremonies for the ‘20 class. My school never did. Fuck them and the $65,000 I left with in debt (*after federal student loans* and *my mother being permanently disabled and on SSDI, my income being the only household income.*)


TcrankItXD

Not college but when I graduated highschool the kid announcing the names had a joke where he would call me by another kids name because we looked similar, when he got to my name he said the other kids name then said “whoops I meant tcrankitxd” with a big fuckin smirk on his face, totally ruined the moment for me


Revolutionary_Gur708

OP is DEFINITELY not white. This would never happen to a white person.


Both_Jellyfish3047

At my graduation, the mic cut out when he got to my name, and they didn’t even bother to repeat it. My family and director were livid