the rag-doll joke was great. it wasn't merely funny, situation-wise, on it's own, but also serves to remind us how ignorant americans are when it comes to names, places, cultures that are foreign to them. the lady at the bank couldn't even understand the name at first, let alone pronounce it correctly.
it must be really tough for certain minorities when they constantly have to pronounce or spell their names over and over again, in order to be called...by their name!
It would be rare for anybody in any culture to instantly pick up on how to pronounce names from another culture. Americans are just like anyone else in that regard.
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"I'm sorry, but.." is a self-contained lie.
Agree. My Dominican professor couldn't say "Steve" - she said what sounded like "estip" - we all (including the prof) had a good laugh. Some sounds just don't exist in other languages - the "gh" sound (ghayn letter) in Arabic just doesn't exist in English. For an American to be able to pronounce that on the first try would be really impressive.
I have the letter "ayn" in my name (Alia, like the actress in the movie, same name), and I'm born in the US. Nobody except my dad can say my name the "right" way - most pronounce it like Aaliyah the singer's name. I never correct them, because why should they have to say this letter that doesn't even exist?
But I also agree on this - the ragdoll joke was pretty darn funny :)