Taking Pride in Culture as a Means of Staying True to Oneself

Jano Boghossian
janoboghossian@ucla.edu

Armenians are very proud people. We never seem to miss an opportunity to take pride in our people’s accomplishments, yet when the time comes where someone asks for something as simple as our name, we let go of all of that pride and succumb to American culture.

Comedian Vahe Berberian said, "When an Armenian meets a non-Armenian for the first time, they either talk about Armenia being the first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion, or talk about the Armenian Genocide." This is very true. We take pride in Mt. Ararat being the location that Noah’s Ark rested on after the flood, Armenia being the first Christian nation, Yerevan being an older city than Rome, and even System of a Down.

On the other hand, how many times have we heard a teacher mispronounce an Armenian student’s name in school? How many times has a student ever put in any effort to try to correct them? From my own observations, an Armenian student rarely attempts to fix the pronunciation of his name. Ironically, this student might sometimes be the same person that goes around preaching to others about how great Armenians are.

Armenian names are unique and recognizable, even to non-Armenians. Every ethnicity has its own particular names, which distinguishes them as part of that specific culture. Names are as much a part of one’s culture as are the food, dance and music of that culture. Armenian names go as far back as the Armenian people—names that have descended from a rich history and that hold great etymological value.

What bothers me is that Armenians in America have become ashamed of their names and strive to anglicize it, or even change it to American names. For example, there are many Hagops out there that insist on being called Jack, which does make a little sense. But insisting on being called Christopher when your name is Khachadour is a shame.

As Armenians try too hard to fit in with the rest of society, some trade in their culture for approval from others. There are many Armenians out there who have gone to extremes such as naming their children American names, not because they match or sound better, but because having an Armenian name would be too difficult for others to pronounce; thus, the child might be teased in school.

What many Armenians do not realize is that their names might sound strange to a foreigner at first, but if they do not put in the effort to have people correctly pronounce their names, no one will do it for them. There are few exceptions, those that go out of their way to try to learn the right pronunciation of our names, but some are not even given the chance. Non-Armenians are not to blame for mispronouncing our names.

The bottom line is that we have to work for progress. What bothers me most is that there are many Armenians out there that anglicize their names even when addressing other Armenians. Some mightdo this in front of a group of foreigners, but it is frustrating when they do it for fellow Armenians.

If we do not take the right steps to correct this problem then we have no right to complain when others do it. When it comes to our food and culture, we feel proud and speak highly of it to others; we should not hesitate to do the same with our names.

If Americans have learned how to properly say Arnold Schwarzenegger, then with a little practice they can also correctly say Hakop Aladzhadzhyan. If we spent as much time teaching others how to correctly pronounce our names as we do talking about the Genocide, then maybe we might actually make some progress.