Of course it is important as teachers to learn to pronounce our students’ names correctly. It is also important to empower students to advocate for the correct pronunciation of their own names. We teach beginner and intermediate ESL students name introductions but do we teach them how to politely correct people who mispronounce their names?
Watch Hasan Minhaj as he teaches Ellen Degeneres how to pronounce his name and discusses the, er, ethnocentrism involved in which names we make an effort to learn to pronounce and which we give up on: https://twitter.com/hasanminhaj/status/1113952740596768771
Feel free to download this simple practice below for use in your own classroom by clicking on the image.