mistakes on tv

I have always been intrigued by the pronunciation of the extremely common Vietnamese name Nguyen. In the U.S. I think it is generally pronounced "new-yen" but in France everybody says "en-gwee-yen" which seems totally incorrect, but the local Nguyens do not seem to mind...

Apparently, even the Vietnamese do not agree about the pronunciation.

Le nom Nguyen, issu du vietnamien Nguyễn (Prononciation en vietnamien du Nord : /ŋwiən˧˩˥/, en vietnamien du Sud /ŋwiəŋ˧˩˥/ ) écrit 阮 en caractères anciens, est aujourd'hui le nom le plus courant parmi les familles d'origine vietnamienne.

Its quite common in the UK for foreigners to adopt versions of their name that are easier for English speakers to pronounce. My uncle (by marriage) Boudewijn is known by his middle name, Felix, for this reason. My former neighbour, Stanisław, likes to be known as Stanley. Immigrants of Chinese origin usually adopt English first names unrelated to their Chinese names, but retain their chinese surname.

in France everybody says "en-gwee-yen" which seems totally incorrect...Prononciation en vietnamien du Nord : /ŋwiən˧˩˥/

I'd say that was not too bad actually.

I'd always taken it to be something like ngoo-yen. I'm now please to learn it is something like ngwee-en.
Starting words with ng is something lots of English people think is too difficult to be attempted, but it isn't difficult at all if you make a bona fide attempt. A lot easier than saying Thursday in Czech (čtvrtek).

in addition to andrew's contribution above, i met a chinese girl from the US once while travelling, and her first name was Doris. i thought that was really bizarre, and she explained that her parents, who did not speak english well and were not too familiar with english / american first names thought Doris was a beautiful, fashionable first name for an american girl, so they decided to call her doris...
... and poor doris will be forever asked how she come to have that name...

on a different note though, as part of my degree in geography i went on a field trip / excursion to china. that was ten or so years ago, and there are many things i don't remember well. however one thing i do remember that really struck me was that at the time i was there, there seemed to be a fashionable thing to do on, which was that - and i am not exaggerating - everyone walked around with their eyes only half opened. and this was really everywhere and everyone.

i don't know if this is still a fashionable thing to do in china to only open your eyes partly, but i wonder how this fashion or fad came about. were they all imitating some pop stars or some person they look up to, who also happen to only partly open their eyes?

if you have never been to china, it will be difficult to understand what i have described above, but believe me, they walk around with their eyes half closed / open, even when they sun has gone down and it is dark.
i wonder how they can see anything when driving a car at night.

has anyone else noticed this super bizarre 'custom'? what was your experience, what did you think?

A lot easier than saying Thursday in Czech (čtvrtek).

What's so hard about that?

*25....

You know a Chinese girl called Doris.... I know a Chinese lady called Dorothy. She is my sister-in-law.
Before she married, she was Dorothy Wong. She's now Dorothy Hughes.
About as non-Chinese as one can get, I reckon.

i thought that was really bizarre

Why would it be bizarre for a Chinese-American to be named Doris?

and poor doris will be forever asked how she come to have that name...

I doubt it very much. "Doris" is a rather old fashioned name, but it is not at all unusual.

Often, when the Chinese go to language school, they are assigned a 'local' name that tries to be not too far from their real name. (This is true in plenty of other countries, too.) Therefore, my Chinese colleague Jue-Fen became Joséphine, and she kept this name for ordinary usage when she moved to France.

doris herself told me that most people found it amusing that she had that name, especially because it just did not suit her, and that she often got comments from people looking surprised.

I haven't read all of this so please excuse me if I'm repeating myself. He was an Austrian skydiver. His name is Felix. He did his dive in Southwest New Mexico. Just so you know.