TRICKY TIM'S LANGUAGE TEST

Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane is dangerously eager to take offence by administering his language test: "When he hands his boarding pass over to the flight attendant, he’ll get [a] response that grieves him. 'Some of the flight attendants will say, ‘Oh, I’m not even going to try to pronounce that’." Tim Blair tears him apart.

Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane is dangerously eager to take offence by administering a tricky language test: 

He’s not scared of flying, but this is a part of the job he’s come to dread. 

Soutphommasane, who is a first-generation Australian born to Chinese and Lao parents, says when he hands his boarding pass over to the flight attendant, he’ll get one of three responses. Some will say, “Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t know how to pronounce that. How do you pronounce that?” Others will have a go – and will often succeed or get very close.

It’s the third response that grieves him. “Some of the flight attendants will say, ‘Oh, I’m not even going to try to pronounce that’...

"It says that they’re not even bothered to treat me with respect. How would they feel if they were told that every day – that people weren’t going to even try to pronounce their name?”

Tim Blair skewers this professional offence-taker, paid a fortune to foster resentment and detect racism where usually non exists:

They are treating you with respect. They are trying, you precious idiot, to not insult you by mangling your name... And you smear them, because that is the AHRC’s disgusting default tactic every single time...

The flight attendants are merely reacting to a word they’ve never seen before that is difficult to pronounce. Were they familiar with your name they’d get it right, the same way most Australians of all backgrounds learned how to pronounce Jesaulenko, Berejiklian, Fui Fui Moi Moi, Benaud, Yunupingu, Tsingtao, Palaszczuk and Nguyen.

Here’s the thing, Dr Tim. Until they became familiar with your surname, not even the enlightened beings at the AHRC knew how to pronounce it.