Foreign names are difficult for people in another country to pronounce and easy for people to make fun of. In the reading “The ‘F’ Word” by Firoozeh Dumas,she points out about her own name and other foreign names being difficult to deal with in another country she’s not from. Dumas writes how there’s obstacles to go through with a foreign name.
Throughout time she had to change her name to an American name in order to fit in, and later on she goes back to her foreign name and doesn’t really care if anyone can pronounce it or makes fun of it. This whole essay that Dumas has written has a good setting from beginning to end by being detailed and having it based almost on a timeline for anyone to have a well understanding of her point. Dumas makes a significant argument through humor, personal experience, and people not treating her with the same equal opportunities in school and career fields.
Dumas reading is organized like a timeline, she starts with when and why she wanted to change her name Firoozeh to Julie and how kids at school made fun of her name. Dumas felt like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders and she finally fit in because Dumas did not grow up like a normal little girl, she had to change her own name in order to fit in. In between she mentions that people in her family did the same because their names are hard to pronounce they were being made fun of. Dumas writes that later on after high school she used her foreign name Firoozeh again mostly because she had no choice, she had to apply to jobs and she was going to college. Later on Dumas mentions getting married and being a stay at home mom,at that point she knew that Americans were more open to learning foreign names although there was still some people out there that were not willing to learn.
The introduction and conclusion are good as well as her title. Duma has a good hook because she starts off with stating her cousin’s name ‘Farbod’ which means ‘Greatness’ and that can catch someone’s attention. In her paragraphs she’s also detailed about what happened to her and why it happened,and how she dealt with her foreign name she mentioned that there were different challenges for her, she states “where all the kids incessantly called me ferocious”.(61)
At the end of the reading she states “the F Word” she mentions how someone started calling her that and that’s intriguing because it gives the purpose of why the title is named that as well. The title “The ‘F’ Word” is a good title because once someone reads that they’d think it’s reflecting on the word ‘fuck’ but when they read it, it’s about something completely different.
Dumas reading is a good article to read she explains all the obstacles she goes through for having a foreign name she also includes her family and a lot about her life for example people would wrongly pronounce her last name Dumas as ‘dumbass’. Duma has very well organized paragraphs she mentions her childhood and adulthood about how it changed overtime. If American people read her article more they’d understand how people with foreign names feel and they’d maybe try harder to pronounce those names. Duma makes a point and expresses her feelings about how she felt as a child and even now as an adult to still hear people mispronounce her name but it's good for people to learn a foreign persons point of view.
Overall Duma has a good setting, introduction and the best is the ending of her article. Dumas also has good metaphors she talks about Americans not pronouncing correctly and for them to practice more, she states “this would be a richer country if all Americans could do a little tongue aerobics”.(61)