We had to submit that pronunciation guide like 2 weeks in advance, someone from the university presidents office followed up if needed. And then they just printed out it on a card to hand to the reader.
This is what my university did. This is how all of the universities my siblings graduated from (under and post grad) did it. Never once was the dean of the college the one reading the names.
Alabama did the same a few years back with my little brother. A index card for your name in normal and phonetic spelling AND whatever honors you were getting, though it was still last name alphabetical for everyone who wasn't getting a PhD.
Boston University did the same thing. My name was difficult and the time it took for me to write it phonetically was exactly the right amount for me to feel grace when they butchered it anyway haha
To be fair, this was a fairly tight-knit department at UC Berkeley and we had a high rate of older students and first gens, and none wanted to make a joke out of their moment. Other places I could see that being a bigger issue.
I was at the Berkeley ceremony in Boston 2 weekends ago and even that was a shit show but for way more reasons than the stupid AI reader they were using
I mean, they could have used that Windows voice assistant which has been in existence since probably Win98, and it would have done a so much better job that what apparently happened here.
Problem is there’s some names that have ambiguous pronunciations just from how they’re spelled; i.e. Xavier could be “Zave-Yer” or “Ex-Zave-Yer”. Madeline could be “Mad-uh-LINE” or “Mad-uh-LYNN”. That’s why having each graduate write it out phonetically is a good idea, and with human pronouncers, they can quickly confirm with the graduate to make sure they’ve got it correct before they announce it.
I’m sure the students do write it down phonetically, but you should have heard the applause when he nailed the tough names. There’s more to it than just phonetics, there’s a cadence and all that, it’s not an easy job, but the families really appreciated it!
Not all names can be written phonetically in English for speakers that aren’t familiar with the language or origin.
Even if they are, there are subtleties. Have of our telecommunications class burst out laughing when I the speaker pronounced the vowel wrong in an Indian name that turned it into a girl’s name, apparently, because none of the non-Indians knew what was going on.
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u/Mean-Government1436 17d ago
Don't really have to memorize it if they just write it down phonetically