VOA慢速英语:No More Guesses at How to Say a Name

A new online service offers a simple way to let other people know how to say your name correctly. It lets others hear you say it yourself in your e-mail.
一项新的在线服务提供一种简单的方法，让其他人知道如何正确说出你的名字。它能让其他人在邮件中听到你说出自己的名字。

Today, more people from different cultures work, live and study together. Some worry that having a difficult name could limit them. Just ask Sheetal Dube. She and her husband came to the United States from India seven years ago.
现今，越来越多有不同文化的人们在一起工作、生活和学习。有人担心，一个难念的名字可能会牵绊他们。问问Sheetal Dube吧，她和丈夫7年前从印度来到美国。

SHEETAL DUBE: “My name, Sheetal, is a very common Indian name and in India people would just know how to pronounce it. But I’ve been working here in the U.S. for some time and I realize people find it hard to pronounce. They haven’t heard it before.”
SHEETAL DUBE：“我的名字是Sheetal，是一个非常普遍的印度名字，而在印度，人们都知道如何发音。但是我已经在美国工作了一段时间，我意识到人们觉得我的名字很难发音，他们还没有听说过。”

Ms. Dube was a user experience consultant for technology companies. She now owns a new company called Audioname. She came up with the idea after doing a presentation with someone she worked with.
Dube女士是一个技术公司的用户体验顾问。她现在拥有一个新的公司，称为Audioname。她与同事做演示之后产生了这个想法。

SHEETAL DUBE: “My colleague was Mary and it was very easy for everyone in the room to say, you know, 'Mary’s findings showed this.' But it’s very difficult to say 'Sheetal’s findings showed this.' So that’s where this idea really stuck in my head. It’s like, you know, what if I just have an audio name and, you know, I put it in my e-mail and they have a chance to hear it before they meet me?”
杜贝：“我同事是Mary，而在房间里的每个人都能很轻松的说出她的名字，‘Mary的研究结果表明了这一点。’但他们说‘Sheetal很困难的调查结果证实了这点。所以这个想法就开始在浮现在我的脑海里。这就像，你知道，如果我有一个音频的名字，并把它放进电子邮件中去，他们就有机会在见到我前先听到我的名字。”

Ms. Dube presented her idea at a business development conference in Portland, Oregon, earlier this year. It won the top award at the event called Startup Weekend Portland.
Dube女士今年早些时候在俄勒冈州波特兰市的一次业务发展会议上介绍了她的想法。这一想法赢得了被称为“波特兰市创业周末”活动的最高奖项。

SHEETAL DUBE: “I realized it was not only me who had a difficult to pronounce name, but a lot people actually had faced that awkward moment where they meet someone else and, you know, they don’t know how to pronounce their name.”
SHEETAL DUBE：“我意识到这不只是我有一个难发音的名字，但许多人实际上会在遇见他人时都曾面临这种尴尬时刻，你知道，他们不知道别人的名字如何发言。”

The service is free. Ms. Dube hopes her idea will help make introductions a little easier.
这项服务是免费的。Dube女士希望她的想法将有助于使互相介绍变得更容易一些。

SHEETAL DUBE: “I went ahead a created a basic Web application where people can go and, you know, record their name in their own voice. And that gives them a little audio file which sits in a Web address which they can actually go and put in their e-mail signature, in their Facebook, on their LinkedIn, on their website. So any place that they interact with other people, basically they can have this audio pronunciation next to their name.”
SHEETAL DUBE：“我继续一个创建了一个基于Web应用程序，人们可以登陆，你知道的，并用自己声音录下他们的名字。程序会返回给他们一个保存到特定网址的小音频文件，他们可以将这个音频的网址放到邮箱签名，Facebook以及他们的LinkIn和网站上。因此他们在任何地方与别人交流，基本上都可以将这个音频放到他们的名字旁边。”

The Portland Seed Fund chose her idea as one of one hundred twenty-six startups to receive money and mentoring support from experts. Ms. Dube left her job to start audioname.com. The site has been live since the middle of September.
波特兰种子基金从126个初创项目中选择了她的创意，作为其中一个获得资金和专家指导。Dube女士离职创办了audioname.com，这个网站在9月中旬已经上线。

Marketing specialist Larry Chiagouris is the author of “The Secret to Getting a Job After College.” He advises people with really difficult names to consider using a nickname in their job search. Sheetal Dube says she heard advice like that while researching her idea. She thinks a service like Audioname offers a better choice.
营销专家Larry Chiagouris是“毕业后求职的秘诀”的作者。他建议名字很难发音的人们考虑在求职时使用一个昵称。Sheetal Dube称，她在调研自己的想法时也听到了类似的建议。她认为类似audioname的服务将提供一个更好的选择。

There are also sites like HearNames.com where people can learn how to say names from around the world. On our site, http://www.hxen.net , you can find a link to VOA's own Pronunciation Guide to names in the news.
也有像HearNames.com这样的网站，人们可以在那里学习如何拼读来自世界各地的的名字。你也可以在我们网站上找到美国之音新闻中出现的名字的发音指南。