Senators struggle to pronounce Google CEO Sundar Pichai's name correctly

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/10/28/google-ceo-sundar-pichais-name-pronounced-incorrectly-senators/6061597002/

Sundar Pichai, the Indian American CEO of Google's parent company Alphabet, has testified on Capitol Hill three times.

But senators questioning him Wednesday via videochat alongside Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter's Jack Dorsey couldn’t pronounce his name correctly, including Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

Pichai is pronounced "pitch" like in baseball and "chai" like the latte – or "pih-chai" – but lawmakers came up with endless variations, addressing him as "Mr. Pick Eye," "Mr. Pish Eye" and more.

Born in Chennai, India, Pichai was the only executive of color and the only immigrant giving testimony Wednesday. He also runs a trillion-dollar company that is one of the world’s best known and most powerful.

Was this 'mispronunciation" deliberate?

[VBM]

I wonder which party they belong to...

[Ferguson97]

Why would you not look up how to pronounce it beforehand?

[7,052,770]

Why would you not look up how to pronounce it beforehand?

They presumably did it on purpose like Perdue

[Beet]

It doesn't seem that hard to pronounce. The correct pronunciation is suggested by the spelling. There are no tricks here.

[ultraviolet]

It was not deliberate. It’s not exactly easy to pronounce and I would’ve said “pee-kye”

[QAnonKelly]

David Perdue has entered the chat.

[Cassius]

Thoughts and prayers for the benighted CEO of Google

[Figueira]

Should be easy if you are familiar with how Indian languages are typically Romanized. But if you aren't, just learn how to pronounce his name. It isn't that hard.

[Del Tachi]

People's names are mispronounced all the time; it shouldn't be interpreted as some slight or racist dog whistle.  If in Louisiana or South Mississippi, most of y'all would mispronounce supposedly "normal" surnames like Hebert or Richard.

[Intell]

Who care?

[Badger]

People's names are mispronounced all the time; it shouldn't be interpreted as some slight or racist dog whistle.  If in Louisiana or South Mississippi, most of y'all would mispronounce supposedly "normal" surnames like Hebert or Richard.

COOL STORY BROSEPH!!!

[Never Made it to Graceland]

People's names are mispronounced all the time; it shouldn't be interpreted as some slight or racist dog whistle.  If in Louisiana or South Mississippi, most of y'all would mispronounce supposedly "normal" surnames like Hebert or Richard.

COOL STORY BROSEPH!!!

I lol'd

[RINO Tom]

People's names are mispronounced all the time; it shouldn't be interpreted as some slight or racist dog whistle.  If in Louisiana or South Mississippi, most of y'all would mispronounce supposedly "normal" surnames like Hebert or Richard.

COOL STORY BROSEPH!!!

I lol'd

Me too, as this was likely the final product of four attempts at his talk-to-text, lol.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

People's names are mispronounced all the time; it shouldn't be interpreted as some slight or racist dog whistle.  If in Louisiana or South Mississippi, most of y'all would mispronounce supposedly "normal" surnames like Hebert or Richard.

COOL STORY BROSEPH!!!

I lol'd

Me too, as this was likely the final product of four attempts at his talk-to-text, lol.

Exclamation point. Exclamation point. Exclamation point. Exclamation point. Send!

[7,052,770]

People's names are mispronounced all the time; it shouldn't be interpreted as some slight or racist dog whistle.  If in Louisiana or South Mississippi, most of y'all would mispronounce supposedly "normal" surnames like Hebert or Richard.

If Hebert or Richard were the CEO of one of the largest companies in the whole world, they would somehow get it right...

[brucejoel99]

So disrespectful.

[Indy Texas]

People's names are mispronounced all the time; it shouldn't be interpreted as some slight or racist dog whistle.  If in Louisiana or South Mississippi, most of y'all would mispronounce supposedly "normal" surnames like Hebert or Richard.

US Senators have staffers who produce briefing books for these kinds of things that include name pronunciation guides.

If they got his name wrong, then either their staff is incompetent, they are illiterate, or they were trying to deliberately pull some racist power play. ("Listen here you mud person, you may be the CEO of a multibillion dollar company but I'm a White and around here I'm in charge!")

[Kingpoleon]

People's names are mispronounced all the time; it shouldn't be interpreted as some slight or racist dog whistle.  If in Louisiana or South Mississippi, most of y'all would mispronounce supposedly "normal" surnames like Hebert or Richard.

If Hebert or Richard were the CEO of one of the largest companies in the whole world, they would somehow get it right...

Politicians literally say Arkansas wrong, despite a President, a prominent Senator, and the biggest company in the world being from there. Good try though.

[Indy Texas]

People's names are mispronounced all the time; it shouldn't be interpreted as some slight or racist dog whistle.  If in Louisiana or South Mississippi, most of y'all would mispronounce supposedly "normal" surnames like Hebert or Richard.

If Hebert or Richard were the CEO of one of the largest companies in the whole world, they would somehow get it right...

Politicians literally say Arkansas wrong, despite a President, a prominent Senator, and the biggest company in the world being from there. Good try though.

Please provide evidence of any US politician mispronouncing 'Arkansas.'

[Santander]

People mispronounce my name all the time. I couldn't care less, lol.

Also, there is nothing disrespectful about Anglicizing the pronunciation of someone's name.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Being outraged that some billionaire got his named mispronounced is the ultimate in neoliberal identity politics.

[Santander]

Being outraged that some billionaire got his named mispronounced is the ultimate in neoliberal identity politics.

He's an employee, not the founder. He's not even close to being a billionaire. It's very rare for a non-founder CEO to become a billionaire. I can only think of Tim Cook and Jamie Dimon off the top of my head.