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ACS_Solver 7 months ago

I think you're touching on another problem, which is that we as users rarely know why the form wants a name. Is it to be used in emails, or for sending packages, or for talking to me?

My language also has a separate vocative case, but I live in a country that has no concept of it and just vestiges of a case system. I enter my name in the nominative, which then of course looks weird if I get emails/letters from them later - they have no idea to use the vocative. If I knew the form is just for sending me emails, I'd maybe enter my name in the vocative.

Engineers, or UX designers, or whoever does this, like to pretend names are simple. They're just not (obligatory reference to the "falsehoods about names" article). There are many distinct cases for why you may want my name and they may all warrant different input.

- Name to use in letters or emails. It doesn't matter if a CSR can pronounce this if it's used in writing, it should be a name I like to see in correspondence. Maybe it's in a script unfamiliar to most CSRs, or maybe it's just a vocative form.

- Name for verbal communication. Just about anything could be appropriate depending on the circumstances. Maybe an anglicized name I think your company will be able to pronounce, maybe a name in a non-Latin script if I expect it to be understood here, maybe a name in a Latin-extended script if I know most people will still say it reasonably well intuitively. But it could also be an entirely different name from the written one if I expect the written one to be butchered.

- Name for package deliveries. If I'm ordering a package from abroad, I want my name (and address) written in my local convention - I don't care if the vendor can't read it, first the package will make its way to my country using the country and postal code identifiers, and then it should have info that makes sense to the local logistics companies, not to the seller's IT system.

- Legal name because we're entering a contract or because my ID will be checked later on for some reason.

- Machine-readable legal name for certain systems like airlines. For most of the world's population, this is not the same as the legal name but of course English-language bias means this is often overlooked.

pezezin 7 months ago | parent | next [-]

> - Name for package deliveries. If I'm ordering a package from abroad, I want my name (and address) written in my local convention - I don't care if the vendor can't read it, first the package will make its way to my country using the country and postal code identifiers, and then it should have info that makes sense to the local logistics companies, not to the seller's IT system.

I am not sure that what you ask is possible, there might be local or international regulations that force them to write all the addresses in a certain way.

But on the positive side, I have found that nowadays most online shops provide a free-from field for additional delivery instructions. I live in Japan, and whenever I order something from abroad I write my address in Japanese, and most sellers are nice enough to print it and put it on the side of the box, to make the life of the delivery guys easier.

account42 7 months ago | parent | prev [-]

The thing is "printable ASCII letters" is something usable for all of those cases. It may not be 100% perfect for the user's feelings but it just works.

ACS_Solver 7 months ago | parent [-]

This is patently wrong and it's the sort of thinking that still causes inconvenience to people using non-ASCII languages, years after it's technically justifiable.

The most typical problem scenario is getting some package or document with names transformed to ASCII and then being unable to actually receive the package or use the document because the name isn't your name. Especially when a third party is involved that doesn't speak the language that got mangled either.

Åke Källström is not the same name as Ake Kallstrom. Domestically the latter just looks stupid but then you get a hotel booking with that name, submit it as part of your visa application and the consulate says it's invalid because that's not your name.

Or when Rūta Lāse gets some foreign document or certificate, nobody in her country treats is authentic because the name written is Ruta Lase, which is also a valid and existing name - but a different one. She ends up having to request another document that establishes the original one is issued to her, and paying for an apostille on that so the original ASCII document is usable. While most languages have a standard way of changing arbitrary text to ASCII, the conversion function is often not bijective even for Latin-based alphabets.

These are real examples of real problems people still encounter because lots of English-speaking developers insist everyone should deal with an ASCII-fied version of their language. In the past I could certainly understand the technical difficulties, but we're some 20-25 years past the point where common software got good Unicode support. ASCII is no longer the only simple solution.