Say it tika! Students tell teachers, ‘Get our names right’
Fed up with the mispronunciation of student names, a group of teens has challenged teachers to get it right.
This week, Palmerston North Girls’ High School recorded 1240 of the school’s students saying their own name into a microphone attached to a laptop.
Group member Brianna Manson, 17, said the project began in 2016 after a teacher expressed frustration about her own name being mispronounced all the time.
It started as a small experiment, with a group of students recording the names of all the senior students who would receive prizes at the endof-year prizegiving.
On the back of its success, teachers then asked for the project to be expanded to the whole school.
The recordings are about to be made available to all the school’s teachers so they can rehearse or check on the spot in class.
Making an effort to say people’s names correctly was basic courtesy and showed cultural respect, Brianna said.
‘‘Two of my friends get their names mispronounced all the time, and they do get frustrated, but it’s so regular it becomes a bit of a laugh.
‘‘But I think it’s really important. We’re a diverse country and a diverse school, and it’s something that really helps with making that first step to keep that cultural progress up.’’
Brianna’s first name is often mispronounced, and she said it sometimes led to confusion about who the teacher is talking to.
Halley Kehoe, 16, said both her first and last name are pronounced wrong ‘‘every day’’.
‘‘Especially by teachers at the start of the year.’’
Halley’s first name is a tribute to her great-grandmother O’halloran, known as Halley. It is pronounced Hal-ee not Hailey, and it’s important to her that people get it right. Her last name is Irish, and she has patience for the fact most Kiwis aren’t familiar with how to tackle the Gaelic sounds.
She much prefers it if people try to get it right and acknowledge they’re having trouble, rather than just bulldozing through with the wrong pronunciation, she said. Girls’ High deputy principal Helen Kinseywightman said teachers were eagerly awaiting the extra help.
‘‘It means we can practise without asking them to have to say it again and again. It can take a while to get right, especially with Ma¯ori names with rolling the R. It can be really difficult.’’
The school had a lot of international students, and it was important to be welcoming and inclusive from the start, she said.
Principal Karene Biggs said the school felt it was an important step in addressing institutional racism, which educators had been widely discussing after a national survey of school children revealed reports of ‘‘consistent’’ racism.
‘‘We think we can do better on this front, and I think the girls will appreciate it. It’s one of those things to make kids feel welcome and comfortable.
‘‘We’re really excited. It’s quite ground-breaking.’’
The software used for the recordings was all free, and the recordings were made as students filed though their administration checks at the start of the year.
‘‘We think we can do better on this front, and I think the girls will appreciate it.’’ Principal Karene Biggs