Which Eng Name Do U Prefer

How does Andrew Ng prefer his name to be pronounced?

This is how Professor Ng pronounces his own name when speaking English:i.e. a syllabic eng [ŋ̭̍], which is the ng sound at the end of 'song' pronounced as a syllable by itself (a bit like the n sound at the end 'button' is).PS Ng is of Singaporean origin but has also lived in the UK, Hong Kong and the US. His surname is spelled 吳, which is pronounced ng in both Cantonese and Hakka (and Wu in Mandarin).

Do you have English names?

Not really.My first name isn’t much of a problem. Like David Maximilian Müller, I pronounce it the English way when talking with Anglos. I’m used to being called SIGH-mun in an English-language context, and I prefer this rather than hear people butcher the name (they really have a hard time with the on /õ/ sound).The last name is a tongue-twister for Anglos, however. The throaty /R/ followed by the alien vowel /y/… plus this strange idea of theirs that “foreign” names are always stressed on the next-to-last syllable (French always stresses the last)… Generally, I end up being called in a Pépé le Pew-ish way, “Le Brownie”:Etymologically, Simon is of Hebrew origin, usually interpreted as meaning “God had heard”, or “he who has been heard”.Labrunie is a hamlet in department Cantal, Auvergne, France:It’s not far from the small town of Maurs, cradle of the family:Probably our g.g.g.g.g.g.g.g…..great-grandfther came from Labrunie before settling down in Maurs. It’s fortunate that we retained the name of his place of origin, rather than of the town where we lived for centuries. Maurs is pronounced exactly like morse, which means this:Well, this could have ensured us a worldwide success?

How are names like Ng and Nguyen pronounced?

It depends on where you are.The Vietnamese name “Nguyen” begins with the sound represented by /ng/. (It is called ingma.) This sound never occurs at the beginning of a word in English, so it is difficult for English speakers to produce it in that position.In Vietnamese the name is pronounced something like “ngwin.” Americans can’t say that easily. Back during the war, American newscasters pronounced the name of South Vietnam’s prime minister Nguyen Cao Ky as “NOO-yen,” as if the /g/ weren’t there. (A French-Vietnamese actress who was popular in the 1960s even changed the spelling of her name to “Nuyen.”)It seems that today, where I live in California, Americans sometimes pronounce the name as “win” (like the English surname “Wynn”), because they don’t really hear the initial ingma sound.The Chinese name “Ng” is pronounced here, among English speakers, as if it were spelled “Ing.” But on a visit to China I met a woman from Hong Kong who had the name. The way she pronounced it, there was no vowel. She explained to me how to say it. As I understood it, her name is pronounced by saying the sounds of /m/ and /ng/ simultaneously. The other Chinese speakers there also pronounced her name with no vowel.Both Vietnamese and Chinese are tonal languages. I have no idea how tones figure into the pronunciation of the names in the original languages. English speakers would ignore the tones, and use English intonations.

Why does this clause use past tense: "I would prefer that you did not mention my name"?

I get this question a lot from German’s trying to learn English.You can use the word “would” to talk about things you did in the past. For example:“When I was a child, I would put crisps in my sandwiches”.So in this example, I am talking about things I did as a child; however, in your example, you are talking about an ideal situation/result - i.e. remaining nameless -and not about a past action.In English, we use conditionals to express desires/wishes. Let’s say for the sake of argument that I am a highly accomplished tennis player and my opponent is a complete novice. Look at the following sentence:“If I win my tennis match, I will be happy”.I used the present tense verbs “win” and “will” here, because I believe there is a strong possibility that I will win my tennis match. The outcome is likely.But what if, like in reality, I am a terrible tennis player and tomorrow - for some inexplicable reason - I’m playing an exhibition match against Roger Federer. There is about a 0.00001% chance of me winning this game, but I can fantasise or imagine the seemingly impossible by using past tense verbs.“If I won my tennis match tomorrow, I would do a backflip and scream with joy”.Notice how I used the past tense verbs “won” and “would” in this sentence, but it has nothing to do with the past.So, if you’re still with me, in your sentence, the ideal outcome is that the name isn’t mentioned, hence the use of the past tense. Saying ““I would prefer” is the ideal outcome.I hope this makes sense.