Thread by @Angelique_Lu, Thread: A plea for companies, businesses & government bureaucracies to be more [...]

Thread: A plea for companies, businesses & government bureaucracies to be more #CALD inclusive in paperwork & admin. As demonstrated by my Vietnamese name.
For this rant to work & make sense, I need to explain the structure of Vietnamese names.

I know what a lot of you would be thinking. "But Angelique, neither Angelique nor Lu is Vietnamese."
a) My parents gave me two first names, Minh-Châu and Angelique. They thought giving me an English name would make my life easier;
b) My paternal grandpa was Chinese

Got it?

Vietnamese names are *long*. It's not uncommon for you to see someone with a name that could be four or five words long at least.

Surnames go first, then middle name and then usually a double-barrel first name.

They're usually spelt out in full too.

Are you with me so far?

Let's take a hypothetical name. (I won't use my own for privacy reasons - Because internet).

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Thảo - This is a really popular name among women in Vietnam.

Nguyễn (surname) Thị (middle name) Thanh Thảo (first name, although you could just use Thảo).

Here's where it gets complicated in a western society.

Because surnames go at the end in western cultures, Vietnamese people on paperwork & documents inadvertently go by their middle names.

So taking our lovely name example, Thảo ends up going by:

Thị Thanh Thảo Nguyễn

I've had well-meaning receptionists in Western Sydney say to me, "What's the go with all the Vietnamese people having the same first name? Thị?"
Nope. It's actually a popular *middle name* for Vietnamese women.

Sometimes entire families will have the same middle name for unity

Where does this get complicated? Imagine filling out a form, like your tax file number. It asks you for your:
Given name: Thảo
Other: Thị Thanh
Surname: Nguyễn
So what happens to this Vietnamese name? It changes:
Thi Thanh Thao Nguyen correctISH
Thao Thi Thanh Nguyen wrong

Why does this matter? Imagine your parents gave you a name in the Vietnamese structure, & you've dutifully filled out the forms according to its wishes. Here's where it starts to get messy. Your name on your birth certificate, which is in the right order, doesn't match your TFN

This means that poor Thao has two mismatching official documents:
Birth certificate: Thi Thanh Thao Nguyen
Tax File Number: Thao Thi Thanh Nguyen
Actual correct order of the name: Nguyen Thi Thanh Thao

What do bureaucracies see?

- "Excuse me, your names don't match. This is not the same person."
OR ...
"If your name has changed, please fill out a 'change of name' form."
"But my name hasn't changed, it's just in the wrong order."
"We can't process your request then."

To get around this, throughout Thao's life, she tries to comply and get all her names to match, by filling out all her given names in the first given name box on forms. But look at how many boxes they give you? Let's pretend her parents also gave her an English name

This happens to me on a regular basis. Forms cut off 'Angelique' because there aren't enough squares. So, using our fake name example, poor Thao might be listed on forms as 'Thi Thanh Thao Ange Nguyen", which also raises alarm bells because it doesn't match her driver's licence

And in this example re. given names, I can't use other given names, because it would lose out the name 'Angelique', which most people I know would know me as

Why does this matter? Identity verification is a nightmare. Credit records don't match. You get yelled at by the RTA receptionist when you get your Ls because your names don't match. You get accused of fraud. Ordinary forms like getting married or filing a tax return takes months

Ways other Vietnamese people have gotten around this:
- Some people I know have hyphenated their whole name. Eg. Thi-Thanh-Thao Nguyen
- My sister has legally changed her name to just her English name
- Having to fill out a witnessed stat dec saying you are the same person

Imagine having to navigate all that, when you probably don't speak English well. Does this mean Vietnamese people who could be eligible for JobKeeper, might not apply, or would struggle because of identity verification issues? I am an admitted solicitor & forms are infuriating

How my parents navigated this in their second language (in my dad's case, his fifth language) is beyond me.

And before you say, "Angelique, just change your name!", I am proud of my Vietnamese heritage & the name my parents gave me. There's 300k Vietnamese people in Oz

It's the fifth most spoken language in Australia.

And words like 'Bánh Mì' and 'phở' are starting to enter the Australian lexicon.

"But Angelique... is there a way this could be fixed?"

Why yes it can!

- Have official documents offer a 'preferred name'. When I see this on forms I want to kiss the ground (I've conditioned myself to respond to my middle name in waiting rooms)

- PLEASE give me more 'given name' boxes on forms!
- If companies/government agencies/insurance etc see the same name on multiple forms of ID, but in a different order, maybe take someone's word for it that they're the same person? Or give me more opportunities to verify myself

This is only one example of structural issues that face CALD communities in Australia. I can't speak for other people from different ethnicities, because I also have my blind spots. This is why #diversity is *SO* important. We can flag any issues other people may have missed

I once tried to log onto free wifi at Belfast Airport, and I got an error on the form. "Your surname doesn't have enough characters." At an airport. For a person with a Chinese surname. A country that has a billion citizens that travel extensively.

We need more people at the table with different background when it comes to #design.

If anyone needs me, I'll be working how to get my tax return, while my super fund refuses to acknowledge my 'intention to claim a tax deduction' form because I'm "not the same person."

The end

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