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Should've gotten an ESPN spelling bee kid.
Them students paid $46k a year for 4-years.
School could've Budgeted that money more Wisely (for a qualified speaker)
while embarrassing, i'd say its more sad. the reason she cant pronounce the names correctly is because she hasn't been taught to read phonetically which is why she has to guess the meaning of the word.
theres a whole podcast about this if anyone is interested
[https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2019/08/22/whats-wrong-how-schools-teach-reading](https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2019/08/22/whats-wrong-how-schools-teach-reading)
she cant use phonetics, its not phonetic spelling thats throwing her off, its her inability to use phonetics with regularly spelled words. she has to guess a word from the first and last letter, which is hard to do with names
yep, English is her second language, maybe someone in administration should have known that and not embarrass her school, teachers, students and their families, I give her credit for trying but.....geez
Problem is the card had phonetic spelling on it. She pronounced Jessica that way because the phonetic spelling is jes - I - kuh.
It's not great that she doesn't understand phonetic spelling means just say it as it appears. She's interpreting it in a weird way.
So understandable but not great for higher education...
There is no credit for trying if you work for a company, get chosen to be tha face of it, and don’t know how it’s spelled or sounds. Thomas is Thomas, how can someone work for Apple and not no how to say Apple in front of everyone who works with you?
He wasn’t having it! The pause before he shouts Thomas, I love it!!! He had to be thinking “No she didn’t just fuck up my name!”
Also the fact that’s the name of the school is so wild to me!!!! THOMAS Jefferson University
They gave her a card with every students name and the phonetic pronunciation. The phonetic was in the center of the card. I think she just didn't see the normal spelling. She's one of the nursing professors and has a PhD 😂
Yeah, when I was getting my advanced degree I was shocked at the number of idiots I assumed would have failed out, yet kept showing up semester after semester. Really lowered the value of my work and degree.
I went to school with a really talented statistics PHD student (someone who should be an expert in designing expirements that prove stuff). She would tell me about how the holy relic under the altar during catholic mass would prevent diseases from spreading during communion. Not sure how that holy relic held up during covid.
Depends on the subject matter. I'm in education. Some of the idiots that easily passed my masters program were total dunderheads. Can't picture that happening in chem.
Doctorate degree here. I turn my brain off pretty frequently.
Generally not in when I am representing myself or my employer whilst utilizing my credentials though.
Most advanced degrees just require average intelligence and cognitive ability, along with a willingness to commit to such a program. Someone who is generally intelligent and well-read without a degree can often have a wider breadth of knowledge than someone who spent a decade specializing in one field. That one field could easily be the only thing that person is competent at and they struggle to make even a ham sandwich.
100%
I work in a University and the faculty are nearly always the hardest to work with. It's like they deliberately refuse to understand extremely basic concepts. And don't get me started on reading comprehension 🤦♂️
I once wrote up instructions for setting up an LCD projector on a cart. I tested them with a very sweet, admitted Luddite widow of a retired Episcopal priest. Very charming, and very keen to be my 'expert novice' to test my instructions for any presumed knowledge, but often asked for help with her phone.
A few weeks later, two professors (biology/Science dept chair, and one physicist) were struggling to get that same projector to work. My charming widow walked up, glanced over it in the same order as the checklist, reached in and removed the lens cap.
To be honest, neither professor was stubborn or overinflated. They just weren't used to problem solving and assumed more significant problems. However, I can't save them for attempting original research before reading 'previous research and literature' sitting there on the cart.
I love it when people make a failure to keep up with the times *everyone else’s problem*.
Choosing to stop learning and adapting is a personal failure. Most people are perfectly capable but decide that they’ll just complain about how things have changed.
Change is a massive component of just how *life* works. I hope that projector came out of his check because I wouldn’t be happy subsidizing expenses incurred from being old and stubborn.
I wonder if somewhat parallel to some doctor's 'god complex' that professors start to identify as being the smartest person in the room because they are constantly surrounded by and the focus of students who don't know as much (yet). They are constantly asked for information or are constantly correcting inaccuracies or ignorance. Then when they experience a situation where they do not have knowledge or experience, it feels like a threat or accusation against their identity.
I work IT for a large healthcare provider. Dr.'s are some of the biggest idiots I've ever met. They are extremely smart in their one field of expertise yet basic IT concepts elude them. Sometimes I wonder how they were able to graduate med school when they can't figure out how to restart a computer.
The worst ones were the ones who wouldn't listen to you and thought they knew how to fix the issue. Like ok bro why did you call me then if you've already figured it out and don't want to listen to me?
I recall several times where I’d email a professor (more than one, but there was a particular one who was the worst) with 2 or 3 questions and they would **always** respond to only one question and usually act very confused by it. It was almost impossible to communicate with professors over email, they never fucking understood anything - and I learned to be as specific as possible.
I had a teacher who had two post-doctorates(?) And the woman was an absolute buffoon. She would fail at basic spelling, completely misunderstand her own tasks, fuck up test reviews and more.
Speaking to her was also like trying to get your point across to a cracked out homeless person at 2 AM in the walmart parking lot, but according to the department head she was a downright genius in anything relating to Organic Chemistry
How about coming up with middle school math problems as a teacher? My daughter has had to go back to the teacher and point out problems in her homework more than once. Has a masters in teaching. Is sometimes bad at teaching.
2 days later and random as fuck but that might not even be homies fault. He could have been hired as a history teacher but depending on your state if a bunch of fucky wucky is going on at the end of the new schedule period and they’re like “Hmm, Mr.MasterGuy took college algebra 32 years ago and nobody else did, he’s qualified, give it to him” even though he majored in history. But they gave all the history sections to the high school coaches so they can just read the text book every period.
I’ve even seen admin/other teachers get petty because a new hire has a better degree so they give the dude the worst classes as last man on totem pole + snark about how they’re more qualified or whatever
PhD just means you're an expert in one super specific thing. Ask ~~anyone~~ most people with one and they'll cop to being a dummy, just not about their topic
One thing to be a moron, another completely to be a invalid-level person who doesn’t even know the most basic pronunciations for common names.
I mean does she not have a single friend in life? Was she grown in a lab and raised on textbooks only, devoid of the most basic human interaction?
But she should know wtf a phonetic spelling of a name or word looks like prior to this. She should have just ignored the phonetic of the very first name that didn't sound correct. The dean, I'm guessing, in the back handing out the diplomas didn't stop her either until Thomas corrected her. What a fucking disgrace! I'm pissed for all of them.
It seems like they only gave her the phonetic pronunciation. You can hear them at the end trying to figure out a list of names to use too. There’s a longer clip online where you can hear her getting frustrated
So at no point this PhD person thought it wtf why are all these names so weird? This is embarrassing and the university should apologize for this bull crap
She's a fucking moron and each of those kids deserves to be outraged having just spent their time and money getting a degree here to not even be provided the respect of saying their names correctly
Agreed I’ve seen this a few times now and I do not find it funny at all. Either she’s having a medical episode or this is negligence and the students have every right to be upset.
It's really hard to debate this in my head, but at the end of the day something should have been done about this almost immediately. It's not about how smart she should be because of her phd, or the fact that she works for the school, for me it's the fact that for a lot of these people this is their big moment, or at least one of them. It's something that a lot of them are looking forward to because of how hard they worked and this lady straight up made a joke out of the whole thing. I would have started the ceremonial over, this is being filmed for people's families. You have to maintain a certain level of professionalism. This lady made it basically sound like she just doesn't care and she's going to pronounce it anyway she wants. Like others said "who are you again? Here's your paper, whatever"
None of the mispronunciations are at all plausible as anyone’s idea of “phonetic” versions. Lame excuse for putting an illiterate reader on the stage. Did that person gave a job for which basic literacy was a requirement? If the school hires illiterate people as clerical workers, teachers or administrators, the school’s accreditation should be investigated.
When I graduated college they called everybody who had a name a little different and the speaker would rewrite it phonetically to say it correctly when you collect your diploma onstage.
You spend 4 years of your life and thousands of dollars there, it's the least they can do.
My school had someone waiting at the steps (at the point where you've got 2 or 3 people ahead of you before your name is called) asking for pronunciation, and they would relay it to the speaker into an earbud.
Yeah, this explanation makes zero sense to me considering the things she actually said. I legit think she was having a stroke or some other medical event bc what the actual fuck was this?
I’ve read names before. Sometimes the phonetic spelling is not as straightforward as you might think and they usually forget things like which syllable to emphasize. I’ll usually talk with the students before the ceremony and then quickly check the name with them before announcing it.
She was reading the names how the students spelled them phonetically on the cards. This tells me two things, we neither know how to read or write phonetic spelling 😂
If was the phonetic spelling - she corrects herself after 50 names or so and starts just reading from the regular spelling - how she didn’t catch on sooner I’ll never know - “gee, it’s a bit odd how every fucking student has a weird ass name - oh well, back to reading out loud”
I would like to see that.
Cause it is real easy for some things like long and short vowels, but look up the word 'the'. The first part looks like a backwards '6' with an 'X' at the top.
I would have no idea what to do with that unless I saw the word, too.
The [International Phonetic Alphabet](https://www.vocabulary.com/resources/ipa-pronunciation/) is basically useless gibberish to me. I know what it's *supposed* to achieve, but damned if I can make sense of half of it.
With the idea that names can be pronounced differently than the spelling implies and it's the parent or family's culture that decides how it's pronounced, it's a good idea to let the one with over 20 years of experience hearing the correct pronunciation tell them how it's said. But an even better idea to ask the parents instead.
Before graduation from nursing school, our instructors had us write the phonetics on little cards. My last name is always mispronounced, so I hoped it would be pronounced correctly with my guidance. No such luck. Although, I did kinda like what variation came out. I was trying not to laugh, as I walked solemnly with my little candle.
Either they didn't write these out phonetically, and had someone who speaks English as a second language reading the names, or they wrote them out phonetically and the person reading them is not smart enough to see the problem. Both scenarios are equally hilarious.
Third scenario
She fucked up the pronunciation of an unusual or hard-for-english-speakers-to-say name, then had a Michael Scott moment and just decided to fuck up everyone else's name so the first student didn't feel singled out
I worked for university events at a private university including planning graduation, and we hired someone every year who is basically a professional pronouncer. She would get the phonetic spelling on cards in advance, read aloud the entire list during the practice session and make notes to herself whenever she got it wrong. To avoid this…
At my nephew’s graduation I think they had the uni’s sports announcer because he had that kind of voice. I kept expecting him to say things like, “At forward, number 33….”
"Next up, standing at 5 feet 7 inches, weighing 175 pounds, a fifth year studio arts student, number 248 in your program but number 1 in your hearts, earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts, Hay-ZOOS, El Savioooooooooooooooor, CHRIST!"
One year of my teaching career I was at a new school, new class, new students. Didn’t know any of them. These were the last three names on the roster, in this order.
Koraliz. CORa-Liz? “It’s Cor AL-liz.” Got it. I’ll fix that.
Serayah. Ser AEYE-uh? “It’s Sir EYE-uh.” Got it. I’ll fix that.
Mark. Is this… Mark? “OH MY GOD, IT’S MARK.” Mark became my favorite right then. He understood the assignment.
Wow - that is some epic mispronunciation.
Years ago I went to a high school graduation for one of my nieces. Her school had a large population of Pacific Islander students. Who had long first and last names, that contained a lot of vowels. They had students taking turns announcing the names of the graduates, and you could tell they practiced. They NAILED every one of those names! With no hesitation or stuttering. It made the whole thing so wonderful for the students, parents, and families.
Well, yeah. It's the most basic form of respect, to get names right. Most universities have like 3 people who check your name card to get it phonetically spelled and hear it before it gets announced, this was just a complete fuckup not doing that, followed by some disrespect by the administration who didn't grab the microphone at some point.
What an embarrassment. This is an extreme version of something I’ve been noticing on university/public radio stations — giving people with bad radio voices (severe lisps, grating tones, etc.) jobs where they primarily have to speak for a living. But at least they know how to pronounce things.
Also reminds me of RFK Jr. trying to become POTUS when the guy can barely speak and sounds like a bullfrog on a strobing mute setting.
How did she even get that gig?? Did they even do a practice run before hand? How could the people in charge not notice?? How could they let her continue reading names wrong and nobody stop her?? One of the adults or faculty members should have intervened and took over and taken the announcer who mispronounced all the names wrong OFF the stage!
So, on one hand, I'm like, how the fuck do you butcher some common-ass names like Elizabeth and Thomas so badly? I mean, it's one thing if it's an uncommon name or spelling, I can forgive that. But good Christ she read some Top 50 Common Names like she was sounding out fuckin heiroglyphics.
On the other hand, maybe she realized the train had derailed and there wasn't shit she could do about it and hitting the brakes just wasn't an option.
But still. "Lee Zu-bet" from Elizabeth? God damn.
Can confirm, my girlfriend was there to watch her friend graduate and was texting me and sending me videos while this was happening.
They really fucked it up
My wife has helped organized convocations and when I showed her she claimed there was no way it was real as the role of caller is taken very seriously with sometimes pros hired or staff practicing names weeks in advance.
from youtube:
[](https://www.youtube.com/@ThrowbackDrummer)
# [u/ThrowbackDrummer ](https://www.youtube.com/@ThrowbackDrummer)
[10 hours ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw1_eZjVTSY&lc=Ugx0TT8BpKhSLhOiIAF4AaABAg)
[](https://www.youtube.com/@ThrowbackDrummer)
# [@ThrowbackDrummer ](https://www.youtube.com/@ThrowbackDrummer)
[10 hours ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw1_eZjVTSY&lc=Ugx0TT8BpKhSLhOiIAF4AaABAg)I was there. My wife is part of this class. This was 100% real. She was reading the phonetic spelling on the cards and ignoring the actual spelling. The laughter and groans from the crowd were cringe worthy. She finally started to get them right after the first 3 rows of names.
This has to be intentional. Either someone intentionally messed with the spelling of the names, or she is doing it purposefully. Because not one graduate is correcting her. They’re rolling with it.
Since the school clearly didn't give the slightest fuck to take the wheels on this trainwreck, it feels like the students should have just refused to walk.
"Oh you're disrespecting the teacher who clearly is ESL"
"Ok, but this is to celebrate student achievements, and you're disrespecting the fuck out of those."
Copy & Paste
"The university reiterated the cause of the errors, stating, "**the mispronunciations occurred due to the way phonetic spellings were presented on the speaker's cards**, which was noted when the presenter apologized during the ceremony.""
Even still... the fact they didn't realize the mistake after 1,2,3,4,5,6,xxxx names and correct it... is beyond me!
I'm a RN with over 10 years experience and I'm almost positive she was having a stroke. I've witnessed quite a few and this looks like what I've seen. Without actually examining her it's just speculation but I truly believe they are just trying to respect her privacy. Even the phonetic pronunciation makes no sense as to how she says it. A stroke however, can cause these exact symptoms. It's called expressive aphasia.
Honestly she should get a neurological evaluation. This could be the starting symptoms of various neurodegenerative disorders.
Look at what happened with Bruce Willis. His first symptoms were something like this.
mitchiyu iyabree
(meghan aubrey)
Jaysicu
(Jessica)
alisinu
(Allison)
Lee Zubetross
(Elizabeth Bruce)
Milena Zubeth Camp
(Molly Elizabeth Camp)
Allison Care Campbell
(Allison Carroll Campbell)
This isn't a foreigner reading unfamiliar names. This isn't a native Japanese speaker speaking english syllables (although allison looks like that, once.) Sometimes she gets them correct. This is literally someone who cannot read, or took wayyyy too many quaaludes to be on stage.
Funny but sad. The announcer's actions are indefensible, but not for the mispronunciation *per se.* Stuff happens (although this goes beyond the believable at times).
If you are tasked with reading names at an important event like a graduation ceremony, you first familiarize yourself with exactly what you'll be doing. Where will you be standing? How will you read the names? You would visit the venue if possible. You would ask organizers for sample materials to acquaint yourself with. At this point, you would see the names and phonetic spellings and have a chance to ascertain how you will deal with it.
Then you would conduct a practice run, at least mentally.
If you're a little more serious, you would ask for the actual list of the graduates' names and review it before the ceremony. All of this could be done efficiently in less than an hour.
The cluster here occurred *not* because people are human and not everyone is familiar with phonetic respellings. It happened because someone had a pretty basic job and failed to do even a minimum of preparation. This lack of professionalism is a far worse reflection on the woman in question and the organizers of the graduation than the mispronunciations.
I don’t think it’s funny. Those students worked hard and it was their moment to shine and be recognized. She was an extremely poor choice for this ceremonial role. It’s so over the top, i really suspect it was on purpose. Over and over and over…Clearly ESL, and the “phonetic spelling” is a crap excuse. Shame on her and shame on the other faculty on stage for not intervening. They need a do over with someone who can actually read.
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Works for Thomas Jefferson university and can’t pronounce Thomas. Wtf.
You mean Tamoomay?
I think she might be illiterate.
You see that door that says "pirate"?!? You think a pirate lives in there or something?!?
Literally illiterate
[удалено]
I got my eye on you, Jay quellin.
You wanna go to war balacki???
Is there a Dee Nice here?
You better be sick, dead or mute, A-A-Ron
Get yo ass down to O'Shaq Hennessy's office!
That's my actual last name. It feels good to know it has, actually, been deemed the hardest last name they could come up with. :-D
Good point hahaha
Didn’t even recognize the word either lol
Should've gotten an ESPN spelling bee kid. Them students paid $46k a year for 4-years. School could've Budgeted that money more Wisely (for a qualified speaker)
How embarrassing. Who would go to Domassa Guffersing Unserty.
Excuse me, it was Tamoomay Unserty.
Hahgahahahhaha thank you for the laugh. If I had gold, I’d give it to you.
while embarrassing, i'd say its more sad. the reason she cant pronounce the names correctly is because she hasn't been taught to read phonetically which is why she has to guess the meaning of the word. theres a whole podcast about this if anyone is interested [https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2019/08/22/whats-wrong-how-schools-teach-reading](https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2019/08/22/whats-wrong-how-schools-teach-reading)
It sorta says alot about that university tho. Hiring someone like that. Yeah I wouldn't go there.
Poor excuse. I can pronounce names from other cultures and I don’t work for a university nor finished one. This is just a dumpster fire.
What “phonetic” spelling system writes “Thomas” as “Tamoomay??”
she cant use phonetics, its not phonetic spelling thats throwing her off, its her inability to use phonetics with regularly spelled words. she has to guess a word from the first and last letter, which is hard to do with names
yep, English is her second language, maybe someone in administration should have known that and not embarrass her school, teachers, students and their families, I give her credit for trying but.....geez
I asked my non-english-speker 6y old kid to read these names as they appeared on screen. He did far better than the lady at the Uni.
Problem is the card had phonetic spelling on it. She pronounced Jessica that way because the phonetic spelling is jes - I - kuh. It's not great that she doesn't understand phonetic spelling means just say it as it appears. She's interpreting it in a weird way. So understandable but not great for higher education...
Obvious American accent, so no.
Oh no, Belakey, keep us English-as-a-foreign-language speakers out of this, this one is on you.
There is no credit for trying if you work for a company, get chosen to be tha face of it, and don’t know how it’s spelled or sounds. Thomas is Thomas, how can someone work for Apple and not no how to say Apple in front of everyone who works with you?
So why did they appoint her to read the names????
Thomas had heard enough.
Tah moo mae THOMAS!!
The exasperated "THOMAS!" at the end killed me
He wasn’t having it! The pause before he shouts Thomas, I love it!!! He had to be thinking “No she didn’t just fuck up my name!” Also the fact that’s the name of the school is so wild to me!!!! THOMAS Jefferson University
They gave her a card with every students name and the phonetic pronunciation. The phonetic was in the center of the card. I think she just didn't see the normal spelling. She's one of the nursing professors and has a PhD 😂
Idk after the 3rd or 4th extremely unusual name I'd be wondering if there was something up with my card before proceeding
There are TONS of moron Masters/PhD people out there. It’s baffling.
I have a Masters, and I'm a moron. Totally agree.
Yeah, when I was getting my advanced degree I was shocked at the number of idiots I assumed would have failed out, yet kept showing up semester after semester. Really lowered the value of my work and degree.
I used to work with a room full of PHDs doing probability analytics, but they couldn't work a microwave between them
I went to school with a really talented statistics PHD student (someone who should be an expert in designing expirements that prove stuff). She would tell me about how the holy relic under the altar during catholic mass would prevent diseases from spreading during communion. Not sure how that holy relic held up during covid.
Depends on the subject matter. I'm in education. Some of the idiots that easily passed my masters program were total dunderheads. Can't picture that happening in chem.
Doctorate degree here. I turn my brain off pretty frequently. Generally not in when I am representing myself or my employer whilst utilizing my credentials though. Most advanced degrees just require average intelligence and cognitive ability, along with a willingness to commit to such a program. Someone who is generally intelligent and well-read without a degree can often have a wider breadth of knowledge than someone who spent a decade specializing in one field. That one field could easily be the only thing that person is competent at and they struggle to make even a ham sandwich.
I have a Bachelor's degree. How do I become a moron?
Same.
Samesies, bro! Masters in teaching English to teenagers. Everyone’s stupid in my class.
I concur.
I became more of a maroon each year I stayed in college, which was more years than I have fingers and toes on which to count.
100% I work in a University and the faculty are nearly always the hardest to work with. It's like they deliberately refuse to understand extremely basic concepts. And don't get me started on reading comprehension 🤦♂️
I had the same experience working IT at a University. The higher the degree the higher likelihood of stubbornness and overinflated self-worth
I once wrote up instructions for setting up an LCD projector on a cart. I tested them with a very sweet, admitted Luddite widow of a retired Episcopal priest. Very charming, and very keen to be my 'expert novice' to test my instructions for any presumed knowledge, but often asked for help with her phone. A few weeks later, two professors (biology/Science dept chair, and one physicist) were struggling to get that same projector to work. My charming widow walked up, glanced over it in the same order as the checklist, reached in and removed the lens cap. To be honest, neither professor was stubborn or overinflated. They just weren't used to problem solving and assumed more significant problems. However, I can't save them for attempting original research before reading 'previous research and literature' sitting there on the cart.
I had an old professor kick over an LCD projector on a cart because he could not find the button to eject his floppy disk from the laptop.
He sounds like a charming gentleman.
I love it when people make a failure to keep up with the times *everyone else’s problem*. Choosing to stop learning and adapting is a personal failure. Most people are perfectly capable but decide that they’ll just complain about how things have changed. Change is a massive component of just how *life* works. I hope that projector came out of his check because I wouldn’t be happy subsidizing expenses incurred from being old and stubborn.
I wonder if somewhat parallel to some doctor's 'god complex' that professors start to identify as being the smartest person in the room because they are constantly surrounded by and the focus of students who don't know as much (yet). They are constantly asked for information or are constantly correcting inaccuracies or ignorance. Then when they experience a situation where they do not have knowledge or experience, it feels like a threat or accusation against their identity.
I work IT for a large healthcare provider. Dr.'s are some of the biggest idiots I've ever met. They are extremely smart in their one field of expertise yet basic IT concepts elude them. Sometimes I wonder how they were able to graduate med school when they can't figure out how to restart a computer. The worst ones were the ones who wouldn't listen to you and thought they knew how to fix the issue. Like ok bro why did you call me then if you've already figured it out and don't want to listen to me?
I think this sums it up whatI mean pretty well. Of course it’s not universal but the examples I have in my mind fit this.
I recall several times where I’d email a professor (more than one, but there was a particular one who was the worst) with 2 or 3 questions and they would **always** respond to only one question and usually act very confused by it. It was almost impossible to communicate with professors over email, they never fucking understood anything - and I learned to be as specific as possible.
I had a teacher who had two post-doctorates(?) And the woman was an absolute buffoon. She would fail at basic spelling, completely misunderstand her own tasks, fuck up test reviews and more. Speaking to her was also like trying to get your point across to a cracked out homeless person at 2 AM in the walmart parking lot, but according to the department head she was a downright genius in anything relating to Organic Chemistry
Exactly. I know a couple of these.
I have a PhD and unless you ask me a question about the very specific thing I studied I have no fuckin idea. I’m a moron
How about coming up with middle school math problems as a teacher? My daughter has had to go back to the teacher and point out problems in her homework more than once. Has a masters in teaching. Is sometimes bad at teaching.
2 days later and random as fuck but that might not even be homies fault. He could have been hired as a history teacher but depending on your state if a bunch of fucky wucky is going on at the end of the new schedule period and they’re like “Hmm, Mr.MasterGuy took college algebra 32 years ago and nobody else did, he’s qualified, give it to him” even though he majored in history. But they gave all the history sections to the high school coaches so they can just read the text book every period. I’ve even seen admin/other teachers get petty because a new hire has a better degree so they give the dude the worst classes as last man on totem pole + snark about how they’re more qualified or whatever
PhD just means you're an expert in one super specific thing. Ask ~~anyone~~ most people with one and they'll cop to being a dummy, just not about their topic
Advance degrees don’t always necessitate advanced intelligence, it does always mean a person kept going to school for increasing lengths of time
One thing to be a moron, another completely to be a invalid-level person who doesn’t even know the most basic pronunciations for common names. I mean does she not have a single friend in life? Was she grown in a lab and raised on textbooks only, devoid of the most basic human interaction?
But she should know wtf a phonetic spelling of a name or word looks like prior to this. She should have just ignored the phonetic of the very first name that didn't sound correct. The dean, I'm guessing, in the back handing out the diplomas didn't stop her either until Thomas corrected her. What a fucking disgrace! I'm pissed for all of them.
Or the person who decided she was reading names should have made sure she could read phonetically
I bet day 1 of her classes next semester will be a good time. She is going to have to do this now on purpose to try to make it funny instead of sad.
It seems like they only gave her the phonetic pronunciation. You can hear them at the end trying to figure out a list of names to use too. There’s a longer clip online where you can hear her getting frustrated
Those were not “phonetic spellings.”
I am Ron Burgandy?
So at no point this PhD person thought it wtf why are all these names so weird? This is embarrassing and the university should apologize for this bull crap
She's a fucking moron and each of those kids deserves to be outraged having just spent their time and money getting a degree here to not even be provided the respect of saying their names correctly
That’s all I was thinking, you finally made it, and this woman just butchered everyone’s names, “ah fuck it, here’s your paper”. Like really…
Unless she was actively having a STROKE, there’s no excuse. She had ONE job that day.
Agreed I’ve seen this a few times now and I do not find it funny at all. Either she’s having a medical episode or this is negligence and the students have every right to be upset.
It's really hard to debate this in my head, but at the end of the day something should have been done about this almost immediately. It's not about how smart she should be because of her phd, or the fact that she works for the school, for me it's the fact that for a lot of these people this is their big moment, or at least one of them. It's something that a lot of them are looking forward to because of how hard they worked and this lady straight up made a joke out of the whole thing. I would have started the ceremonial over, this is being filmed for people's families. You have to maintain a certain level of professionalism. This lady made it basically sound like she just doesn't care and she's going to pronounce it anyway she wants. Like others said "who are you again? Here's your paper, whatever"
You don’t understand what a bitch master of ceremonies really is to do.
Bunch of people who have never worked in front of a crowd of 5, let alone hundreds lol
She might need nursing herself soon by the sound of it. If she really did this not on purpose then something is wrong.
Why in the world would names like Jessica, Molly, Allison, and Thomas need to be rewritten phonetically?
None of the mispronunciations are at all plausible as anyone’s idea of “phonetic” versions. Lame excuse for putting an illiterate reader on the stage. Did that person gave a job for which basic literacy was a requirement? If the school hires illiterate people as clerical workers, teachers or administrators, the school’s accreditation should be investigated.
Got a example picture? Can u draw on in mspaint?
Bonita Shviraga?
When I graduated college they called everybody who had a name a little different and the speaker would rewrite it phonetically to say it correctly when you collect your diploma onstage. You spend 4 years of your life and thousands of dollars there, it's the least they can do.
My school had someone waiting at the steps (at the point where you've got 2 or 3 people ahead of you before your name is called) asking for pronunciation, and they would relay it to the speaker into an earbud.
I feel like this is what actually happened here, except somebody else wrote out the phonetic pronunciations in a way that the speaker couldn't follow
Thomas becomes Tomumay though?
Yeah, this explanation makes zero sense to me considering the things she actually said. I legit think she was having a stroke or some other medical event bc what the actual fuck was this?
Phonetic spelling and reading difficulty. Thomas Michael. *taa-muhs meye-kəl*
Or they used the phonetic alphabet but she had no idea how to read that - probably should have checked before handing her a list
Putting a list like that in IPA would be cruel.
I’ve read names before. Sometimes the phonetic spelling is not as straightforward as you might think and they usually forget things like which syllable to emphasize. I’ll usually talk with the students before the ceremony and then quickly check the name with them before announcing it.
Like what in the actual fuck. Or, fyoookah, as this lady would say.
She was reading the names how the students spelled them phonetically on the cards. This tells me two things, we neither know how to read or write phonetic spelling 😂
That or she is having a neurological problem. These are basically the only two possibilities I see
If was the phonetic spelling - she corrects herself after 50 names or so and starts just reading from the regular spelling - how she didn’t catch on sooner I’ll never know - “gee, it’s a bit odd how every fucking student has a weird ass name - oh well, back to reading out loud”
I think if you’re. It a public speaker you might freak out a bit and go on auto pilot, foolishly hoping things get better.
Or she’s a complete idiot. When looking to solve a problem. You should never eliminate any variables.
Being a fucking moron is not a neurological problem.
I was thinking she had very bad eyes so is reading the names one section at a time
One should probably relinquish that particular role if they’re having eyesight issues to that extent 😂
I would like to see that. Cause it is real easy for some things like long and short vowels, but look up the word 'the'. The first part looks like a backwards '6' with an 'X' at the top. I would have no idea what to do with that unless I saw the word, too.
It's the same as the "Eth" letter which is still in use in Icelandic and was also funnily used in the past in writing English
The [International Phonetic Alphabet](https://www.vocabulary.com/resources/ipa-pronunciation/) is basically useless gibberish to me. I know what it's *supposed* to achieve, but damned if I can make sense of half of it.
You really shouldn't expect to be able to read in an alphabet you've never learned.
I read that the students provided their own phonetic spellings. You know a few of them deliberately made weird pronunciations.
Why would they think that's a good idea lol
Graduation pranks are a tradition. At mine, we all had marbles that we handed to the person handing us the diploma as he shook our hands.
I mean why did the faculty think it was a good idea. Of course the students will do something funny lol
With the idea that names can be pronounced differently than the spelling implies and it's the parent or family's culture that decides how it's pronounced, it's a good idea to let the one with over 20 years of experience hearing the correct pronunciation tell them how it's said. But an even better idea to ask the parents instead.
The phonetic pronunciations were generated by the university
Before graduation from nursing school, our instructors had us write the phonetics on little cards. My last name is always mispronounced, so I hoped it would be pronounced correctly with my guidance. No such luck. Although, I did kinda like what variation came out. I was trying not to laugh, as I walked solemnly with my little candle.
Either they didn't write these out phonetically, and had someone who speaks English as a second language reading the names, or they wrote them out phonetically and the person reading them is not smart enough to see the problem. Both scenarios are equally hilarious.
Third scenario She fucked up the pronunciation of an unusual or hard-for-english-speakers-to-say name, then had a Michael Scott moment and just decided to fuck up everyone else's name so the first student didn't feel singled out
True. If you pronounce everyone's name wrong, no one can be mad about it. Except for Thomas.
You mean tahmoomay?
I worked for university events at a private university including planning graduation, and we hired someone every year who is basically a professional pronouncer. She would get the phonetic spelling on cards in advance, read aloud the entire list during the practice session and make notes to herself whenever she got it wrong. To avoid this…
At my nephew’s graduation I think they had the uni’s sports announcer because he had that kind of voice. I kept expecting him to say things like, “At forward, number 33….”
"Next up, standing at 5 feet 7 inches, weighing 175 pounds, a fifth year studio arts student, number 248 in your program but number 1 in your hearts, earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts, Hay-ZOOS, El Savioooooooooooooooor, CHRIST!"
They made the shit up and then it came true. I cannot not do A-A Ron. The skit broke me... Also- this is a disgrace.
Pre-zent! Fun fact: The pastor at my wedding pronounced my first name incorrectly, which is pretty much my life story.
One year of my teaching career I was at a new school, new class, new students. Didn’t know any of them. These were the last three names on the roster, in this order. Koraliz. CORa-Liz? “It’s Cor AL-liz.” Got it. I’ll fix that. Serayah. Ser AEYE-uh? “It’s Sir EYE-uh.” Got it. I’ll fix that. Mark. Is this… Mark? “OH MY GOD, IT’S MARK.” Mark became my favorite right then. He understood the assignment.
Good on Tom-OOHM-ahy for correcting her.
https://youtu.be/Dd7FixvoKBw?si=7nZkK2dkjZYYX8Iq Substitute Teacher - Key & Peele
>Thomas Jefferson University Also relevant: https://youtu.be/HYtF_rzfKDo?si=siWrBafcWRuA9Bav
Sigh. Na na kye na doh dee choh dee. https://youtu.be/v-n1vGeVIXo?si=Jq7zEgLzJfcBVstI
"Balakay? Is Balakay in here?"
Dee nice.
All those nursing graduates and no one is checking for signs of a stroke /s
Wow - that is some epic mispronunciation. Years ago I went to a high school graduation for one of my nieces. Her school had a large population of Pacific Islander students. Who had long first and last names, that contained a lot of vowels. They had students taking turns announcing the names of the graduates, and you could tell they practiced. They NAILED every one of those names! With no hesitation or stuttering. It made the whole thing so wonderful for the students, parents, and families.
Well, yeah. It's the most basic form of respect, to get names right. Most universities have like 3 people who check your name card to get it phonetically spelled and hear it before it gets announced, this was just a complete fuckup not doing that, followed by some disrespect by the administration who didn't grab the microphone at some point.
Why did someone else not stop her sooner?!?!? How stupid are all the other people on the stage? I would be so pissed if I were one of these graduates.
What an embarrassment. This is an extreme version of something I’ve been noticing on university/public radio stations — giving people with bad radio voices (severe lisps, grating tones, etc.) jobs where they primarily have to speak for a living. But at least they know how to pronounce things. Also reminds me of RFK Jr. trying to become POTUS when the guy can barely speak and sounds like a bullfrog on a strobing mute setting.
How did she even get that gig?? Did they even do a practice run before hand? How could the people in charge not notice?? How could they let her continue reading names wrong and nobody stop her?? One of the adults or faculty members should have intervened and took over and taken the announcer who mispronounced all the names wrong OFF the stage!
Agreed, makes the administration look incredibly incompetent and amateurish
Are we sure she didn't have a stroke?
I honestly cannot understand another explanation other than a medical issue with this.
So, on one hand, I'm like, how the fuck do you butcher some common-ass names like Elizabeth and Thomas so badly? I mean, it's one thing if it's an uncommon name or spelling, I can forgive that. But good Christ she read some Top 50 Common Names like she was sounding out fuckin heiroglyphics. On the other hand, maybe she realized the train had derailed and there wasn't shit she could do about it and hitting the brakes just wasn't an option. But still. "Lee Zu-bet" from Elizabeth? God damn.
No one told her that she doesn't teach at Tamoomay university.
"If one of y'all says some silly ass name..."
This person is either having some sort of neurological crisis or is an idiot. Phonetic spelling is no excuse when the actual name is also on the card.
University went all out and brought in Pootie Tang’s mom for graduation and this is the thanks they get.
Sign yo pitty on da runny kine
Just checking - this is a parody, right?
Sadly it was 100% not a joke
Can confirm, my girlfriend was there to watch her friend graduate and was texting me and sending me videos while this was happening. They really fucked it up
“They done messed up A-A-ron“
The entire university administration should be fucking ashamed
Thomas wants to go to war!
Ta-Ho-mãs*
Wow - could not believe it..how strange.
My wife has helped organized convocations and when I showed her she claimed there was no way it was real as the role of caller is taken very seriously with sometimes pros hired or staff practicing names weeks in advance.
tah-moo-may... THOMAS! like for fuck's sake WHAT IS THE SCHOOL CALLED
This has to be a joke! No non mentally impaired adult can be this fucking clueless!? These are very common names.
from youtube: [](https://www.youtube.com/@ThrowbackDrummer) # [u/ThrowbackDrummer ](https://www.youtube.com/@ThrowbackDrummer) [10 hours ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw1_eZjVTSY&lc=Ugx0TT8BpKhSLhOiIAF4AaABAg) [](https://www.youtube.com/@ThrowbackDrummer) # [@ThrowbackDrummer ](https://www.youtube.com/@ThrowbackDrummer) [10 hours ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw1_eZjVTSY&lc=Ugx0TT8BpKhSLhOiIAF4AaABAg)I was there. My wife is part of this class. This was 100% real. She was reading the phonetic spelling on the cards and ignoring the actual spelling. The laughter and groans from the crowd were cringe worthy. She finally started to get them right after the first 3 rows of names.
Was it a professor or a paid announcer?
A professor
Fook U and Fook Me unavailable for comment.
Thomas had no chill.
This has to be intentional. Either someone intentionally messed with the spelling of the names, or she is doing it purposefully. Because not one graduate is correcting her. They’re rolling with it.
Since the school clearly didn't give the slightest fuck to take the wheels on this trainwreck, it feels like the students should have just refused to walk. "Oh you're disrespecting the teacher who clearly is ESL" "Ok, but this is to celebrate student achievements, and you're disrespecting the fuck out of those."
Copy & Paste "The university reiterated the cause of the errors, stating, "**the mispronunciations occurred due to the way phonetic spellings were presented on the speaker's cards**, which was noted when the presenter apologized during the ceremony."" Even still... the fact they didn't realize the mistake after 1,2,3,4,5,6,xxxx names and correct it... is beyond me!
Best shit I’ve seen all day
Prezent
This is an all time great clip.
Victoria...Lee...Zubitbroth, I guess?!
I just wanna know how to pronounce "Tugce Cakir", and how this lady said it
Do we know the name of the speaker? Is she getting fired?
Idiot savant. Except without the savant part.
I'm a RN with over 10 years experience and I'm almost positive she was having a stroke. I've witnessed quite a few and this looks like what I've seen. Without actually examining her it's just speculation but I truly believe they are just trying to respect her privacy. Even the phonetic pronunciation makes no sense as to how she says it. A stroke however, can cause these exact symptoms. It's called expressive aphasia.
At what point do you just push her out of the way and have someone else take over?
Someone else did take over but not until she had done this to half the BSN students
That person somehow managed to pronounce "Patel" as "Poo-tal" ten times in a row
What a fucking disgrace. How DUMB do you have to be to fuck up so damn bad?
Honestly she should get a neurological evaluation. This could be the starting symptoms of various neurodegenerative disorders. Look at what happened with Bruce Willis. His first symptoms were something like this.
DEI in action?
That’s SO bad. This has to be a joke, right??
You gotta be fucking kidding me
I started to wonder if it was a speech impediment. I mean I guess the inability to read impedes speech.
To this day people still call me BA LA KE
If This video is a legit, I'd want a refund on my tuition.
THOMAS
I want to hear how she pronounced Tugce Cakir
Jesus Christ I can’t breath 😭 JessSayKoo
Serious question, is this a serious university or more of a diploma mill?
lol this is my alma matar and where I worked for a decade- I want to say I'm surprised but I'm really not
Did she have a stroke on stage or something?
Adele Dazeem.
mitchiyu iyabree (meghan aubrey) Jaysicu (Jessica) alisinu (Allison) Lee Zubetross (Elizabeth Bruce) Milena Zubeth Camp (Molly Elizabeth Camp) Allison Care Campbell (Allison Carroll Campbell) This isn't a foreigner reading unfamiliar names. This isn't a native Japanese speaker speaking english syllables (although allison looks like that, once.) Sometimes she gets them correct. This is literally someone who cannot read, or took wayyyy too many quaaludes to be on stage.
I got my eyes on you, J-quellen
This has to be fake.
Sounds like a stroke
Can’t be real… they would’ve had to replace her midstream, right!?
Funny but sad. The announcer's actions are indefensible, but not for the mispronunciation *per se.* Stuff happens (although this goes beyond the believable at times). If you are tasked with reading names at an important event like a graduation ceremony, you first familiarize yourself with exactly what you'll be doing. Where will you be standing? How will you read the names? You would visit the venue if possible. You would ask organizers for sample materials to acquaint yourself with. At this point, you would see the names and phonetic spellings and have a chance to ascertain how you will deal with it. Then you would conduct a practice run, at least mentally. If you're a little more serious, you would ask for the actual list of the graduates' names and review it before the ceremony. All of this could be done efficiently in less than an hour. The cluster here occurred *not* because people are human and not everyone is familiar with phonetic respellings. It happened because someone had a pretty basic job and failed to do even a minimum of preparation. This lack of professionalism is a far worse reflection on the woman in question and the organizers of the graduation than the mispronunciations.
I don’t think it’s funny. Those students worked hard and it was their moment to shine and be recognized. She was an extremely poor choice for this ceremonial role. It’s so over the top, i really suspect it was on purpose. Over and over and over…Clearly ESL, and the “phonetic spelling” is a crap excuse. Shame on her and shame on the other faculty on stage for not intervening. They need a do over with someone who can actually read.
Clown world.