Sunday 13 April 2008

Welcome to FTV news, my name is Oreo 歡迎收看民視新聞,我是Oreo

This morning, I started off the Mandarin show saying, "Good morning, welcome to Formosa TV news, I'm Oreo."

Goodness. How did this happen? My name in pinyin is Weng Yurong. However, after coming to back to Taiwan after growing up in American and then going to graduate school in Japan, I was speaking with more of a Beijing accent, and everyone kept asking me if I was from China, so I started following Mom and Dad's Taiwanese-Chinese way of pronouncing it "ong," which is also not the proper "wong" pronunciation. This way, I tried to say it the proper Taiwan Mandarin way, "Wong Yurong," and it came out sounding like our dog's name, "Oreo."



"Ong" makes my full name easier to say, because when you say "Yurong," it involves rounding the mouth and the tongue. "Ong" doesn't involve rounding of the mouth, but "Wong" does, and when you say it all too fast, it all rolls together. When "Wong Yurong" all rolls together, it sounds like "Oreo."

I almost cracked up when "Oreo" came out of my mouth this morning. Oh gosh. Dilemma. Shall I continue with my hick Taiwanese "ong," Beijing "weng," or Oreo "wong"? What a dilemma.

今天早上,新聞一開場我說,
"早安您好,歡迎收看民視新聞,我是Oreo."
天啊,發生了什麼事?
說實在,標準國語的"翁郁容"真的很難唸。
"翁郁容"三個字都需要
把嘴巴嘟起來,舌頭捲起來,
所以如果唸太快,全部會捲成一團,
然後就聽起來像我們家的狗"Oreo"。

剛從美國和日本回來台灣的時候,
我的國語有北京腔,
尤其我嘴巴扁扁的"翁weng"
不是台灣嘴巴圓圓的"翁wong"。
一天到晚被問我是不是大陸妹,
我就決定用爸媽台灣國語的"翁ong"。
"ong"沒"wong"那麼圓,所以其實不難唸,
但就不是標準(台灣的)國語。

哎,到底要用俗台灣國語的"ong",
還是大陸妹的"weng",
還是家裡狗狗Oreo的"wong"呢?
真是頭痛。

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