Full transcript
0:00growing up and as a teenager you always
0:02felt
0:04it was like a label it was like a label
0:06you're the Foreigner
0:08[Music]
0:13my name is Armin and I grew up in London
0:17I was born in Kensington which is West
0:21London I'm going to call it as a call it
0:23a posh area I was in the area known as
0:28High Street Kensington and in that
0:30particular area it was predominantly
0:32white
0:36there's there's always there's always a
0:39hesitancy
0:40uh generally speaking people will say
0:43almond so they don't roll the r
0:47and I've got to this uh not just now I
0:50mean the past maybe 15 20 years of my
0:52life I've got to a stage where I'll just
0:55go with that
0:57it's not a common name it's an out of
0:59the ordinary name thank goodness we're
1:03past again as Society has developed
1:05we're past the point where we used to go
1:08oh that's a strange name
1:10oh that's an unusual name the the
1:14ignorance of 30 or 40 years ago meant
1:17people thought they could repeat your
1:20name in a sort of quirky or um
1:24from from their perspective what they
1:26thought was funny
1:28um and expect you to buy into their
1:30humor unfortunately that doesn't that
1:32doesn't happen anymore but I've been
1:34through the mill with all that
1:39the childish way I can remember saying I
1:42was born in but I was born in Kensington
1:45uh in an overposh way
1:49um as a means of fitting in
1:56yeah I'm always pleasantly surprised if
1:58if someone has said to me well I know
2:01another woman or
2:03or they pronounce it you know straight
2:05away the way it should is correctly
2:08pronounced but I sort of have a I lie
2:12that outwardly smile or inwardly smile
2:15if someone's trying to pronounce it the
2:17way it should be pronounced
2:19State the blooming obvious it costs
2:21nothing all it costs is maybe another 10
2:24seconds thought 20 seconds thought to
2:27say
2:32but I wonder if still now
2:35when people see I know it's actually now
2:37and it's all done through computers but
2:40if you get through the computer around
2:43to a human being seeing your application
2:46form
2:46and if they see the name Armin whether
2:50that still informs
2:52there their perception of who this
2:55candidate is
2:57you know
2:59quite possibly
3:04I think it's absolutely right that
3:08we call people by the name they were
3:12given correctly
3:14and pronounce it correctly because to me
3:17that is respect yeah it's your identity
3:22um
3:23and and it's your presence
3:27and I can't rob you or I can't allow you
3:30to rob me of my presence by not
3:33pronouncing my name
3:35the way it should be pronounced
3:42[Music]