Its funny going to a small town. Sometimes you standout due to your accent, sometimes due to your looks and these days, if your name sound foreign. I had an interview for a position in Maine and boy oh boy.....I ran out of there as fast as I could. The airport security people acted like they had never seen a foreigner and had a hold of a terrorist. They did everything but an anal exam on me. It took him just over 5 minutes to give back my driver's license. I apologized to the hospital CEO but said that I could never come back there again.
Now here, in my little town, I stand out too but, its been a pleasant standout. People are more curious than anything. When I originally set-out to come to the US for my residency I told my dad that I am going to be called Dr. Mo because no one can pronounce my last name. He scolded me and told me that if I allow people to do that, it would be like they were insulting me every-time they called my name. He insisted I force everyone to call me by my full name. Hmm. That did not go well during my residency training and Dr. C is what most nurses ended up calling me. My Attendings were much better at it though.
When I started here in MN, again, I forced the issue that I should be called by my full name. Guess what happened! Everyone is calling me by my full last name and doing a darn good job of it too. Of course I found many funny cheat sheets hidden here and there where nurses had broken down my last name vowel by vowel phonetically. My last name is 14 letters long and is divided into 5 parts...Che leh ......won't post it all since I do believe in some discretion when posting on the internet.
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