MISS CATH- REAN

I totally understand how people mangle my last name but how the heck do you mess up Catherine ?

When I was a kid I hated my name, I wanted to be called Alice. (I was a huge fan of ALICE IN WONDERLAND.) But I put up with Cathie. (Note it is CathIE, NOT CathY.  My mother said I was a Cathie with an IE because there is no "Y" in Catherine.  Although there are the existing Cathyrnes or Kathyrnes of the world but I was not to be one of them.) Alas I am not exotic but I am not common either. And I am not Alice ! Nor am I KATH REAN which is the name given me by the woman who just called. Oddly enough she WAS able to pronounce my last name, which is a killer for many folks but she screwed up Catherine.

Who are these people who make these phone calls? They have got to have lived in caves in the highest mountains of Tibet only to have climbed down the mountain, crossed rushing rivers, sailed a raft across the ocean to reach America and been snatched up by some telemarketing company. I haven't checked lately but I bet if I check the want adds there are companies who specifically target those folks who can not speak English. WHY ? It is bad enough when you call tech support that the guy can't speak English, but you expect that! All the English speaking computer nerds are locked In a room making their first billion designing  computer programs that will change the world or ones that will figure out how to win the lottery.  But when I call my local town hall I really would like to speak English with some one I can understand. If I travel to France I expect to have to try to use some of my high school French. If I am in Italy I will attempt to make myself understood with sign language but when I am in my own country why aren't people speaking ENGLISH?

It's not even that some of these people are speaking a different language, they just are not speaking English English. (As I am sure folks from England say about us Americans all the time,) but living in America we like to give opportunities to one and all and who else would want the job of a telemarketer except the person who apparently never knew anyone named Catherine. Now if I was a Bobbie Jo Sue or a Kneesha they probably would have gotten the pronunciation correct.