DEAR ABBY: I work for a company that processes orders from a store at a local mall. I handle these orders and have run into an embarrassing problem. Our customers come from every imaginable ethnic background. When I take a look at some of the names on the work orders, I can't even begin to pronounce them.
It's my job to call these customers back to verify details and schedule installations, so what should I do? Is it more polite to try to sound out the name and wait to be corrected, or to apologize right off the bat and ask the proper pronunciation? -- TONGUE-TIED IN ST. PAUL, MINN.
DEAR TONGUE-TIED: To lead off the conversation by stating that you don't know how to pronounce someone's name could be extremely off-putting. It would be better to sound it out, syllable by syllable, and try to pronounce it -- adding, "If I have mispronounced your name, please correct me." (It probably won't be the first time the person has heard it.)