It doesn’t look like it sounds

So I’ve been conducting an experiment of sorts. This goes back, oh, I don’t know… a year and a half or so? It all started when I told the barista at Starbucks my name is “MJ” (in order to eliminate confusion), and at the end of the line they announced my drink and called me “Mojo.”

Yes. MO-JO.

It was at this point I realized even a simple name could be butchered by the “let me write your name on this cup” paradigm. Thus, my experiment was born.

First, the rules:

1. I tell them my name is Marijke.
2. If they ask me to spell it, I spell it.
3. If they do not ask me to spell it, I do not spell it.
4. (Pretty simple stuff here, people.)

And now, the results.

When they got it so close:

When they clearly think I am someone else:

TWO Miranda’s? Golly.. Maybe I should enunciate.

When they majored in hooked on phonics:

When I spelled it for him and he STILL got it wrong:

When the only appropriate response is, “Really?”:

 

Marijke. It’s like Mariah with a K. [It just doesn’t look like it sounds.]