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Adam Dravian:
It seriously does lead to some awkward situations. Especially because our home city of Grand Rapids is notably Christian (we hold some kind of record for the number of churches per square mile in the US).
For instance, last time I went to get my teeth cleaned at the dentist, the, uh, dental assistant lady was making small talk with me. She knows I'm a writer, so she asked what my latest project is.
"I'm writing a comic that my girlfriend draws."
"Oh, how nice! What's it called?"
"Uh, Satan Ninja 198X."
"What was that?"
"Satan Ninja. 198X."
"Oh ... Okay."
Yeah, it tends to be awkward.
Rijst:
Yeah that's pretty awkward. By the way, do you pronounce it "nineteen eighty-X" or "1-9-8-X"?
Adam Dravian:
It's pronounced "nineteen-eighty-X" or "nahyn-teen-ey-tee-eks" if we wanna get really phonetic about it.
And on that note, how the hell do you pronounce Rijst? Is the "ij" that funky Dutch letter that we don't have an equivalent of in English? My ancestral Dutch surname ends in that "ij," which is the only reason I know about it.
Rijst:
I guess the closest would be the way "i" is pronounced in "idol". There's no direct equivalent in pronounciation but this is pretty close.
The word rijst means rice by the way, and for some reason became my nickname about 12 years ago. Most of my friends (the Dutch ones anyway) call me this.
You think "ij" is funky? Try the "eu" in my surname, there's a sound that doesn't exist in English and my name hasn't ever been pronounced correctly here in Glasgow. I've given up on correcting people as they generally don't even hear the difference.. 8)
Adam Dravian:
Ah, Jessica actually looked up your name awhile ago and told me it was the Dutch word for rice, but I totally forgot.
My ancestral Dutch surname ended with "naaij" but when it was "Americanized" they changed the end to "nay." Apparently, something like "nye" would've been more accurate.
Yeah, it's strange how we can't really hear distinctions in certain sounds when it's not part of our cultural vocal lexicon.
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