L B R N

a party in a box

what’s in a name?? April 17, 2008

Filed under: everyday — lbrn @ 11:34 am

working in hospitals i come across
some pretty interesting names.

since i have been in a hawaiian
hospital i’ve heard the most
interesting and hard to pronounce
names yet.

i will share a few of them with you.
it will be hard to pronounce without
knowing the hawaiian alphabet.  but
you can do some research and try
your best.

ali’iano

lehualani

kaimanalani

leina’ala

ikaika

kaipo

leinani

ke’ala 

pualani

keikilani

keola

it’s understandable that most
nurses, even hawaiian nurses,
address the baby as ‘baby’ instead
of trying to figure out their name
and possibly offend the parent
as we butcher it.  calling the patient
‘baby’ also helps us not get the
gender wrong.

“how much has baby eaten today?”
“how do you think baby is doing today?”
“will you let us know when baby wakes?”

nurses sweetly get called auntie, and in
return we call the patients with difficult
names baby?!  this can’t be right.  i’m going
to try harder with names from now on!!!

 

2 Responses to “what’s in a name??”

  1. Katie Lerch Says:

    Man, those dang names took me FOREVER to learn. And how about the street signs? Getting directions was like getting them in Greek. Glad you are getting to enjoy the challenge:)

  2. Rebekah Says:

    Here’s just how big of a dork I am:

    I went through all the names to see if I could remember what you taught me about the alphebet. Yes, that’s right, I went through ALL the names and tried to pronouce them all. Not sure if I got them right, but I did practice.

    By the way, WHERE ARE MY PANTS?


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