Say my name

If you ever read any work of Dale Carnegie, you'd know that people's names are kinda important to them. Indeed you can get far with even difficult people just by addressing them by their first names especially by hitting that correct pronunciation for the unfamiliar ones. It not only shows that you cared to remember their names but made an effort to say it the right way.

Lesson 1: Their way.

So it's important for me to know the names of all my students, no matter how many, 15 or 50. Also, i never shorten them, unless they ask me to. That's another thing. It is rather impolite to shorten someone's name without their permission. Je pense. This reminds me, when i joined my dept, oh like light-years back, most of my colleagues used the usual first three lettered version of my name, except one who asked me what would i prefer to be called. I told him that people who can say my rather long and hard to pronounce name are directly sent to my short-list. He was a wise man. :-P To this day he is on my short-list. Rest of them wised up pretty soon though and followed suit. So yeah, see how that went?

Lesson 2: Don't be presumptuous.

On the other hand, if you know someone, like really know them, then my dears, you can get away with calling them pretty much anything. :) Most of my closest friends just use my first initial and it is endearing. Cela dit, don't stop yourself from uttering that name! Once in a while, go pick up all those letters, hard and soft, long and short, don't be afraid to use that tongue of yours, and hit that name just right.

Let them know, really, what's in a name.

Je me comprends. Mais comprenez-vous?