Let’s all spare a thought for Australian citizen Phuc Dat Bich, ethnically Vietnamese, who is embroiled in a battle with Facebook. It seems Facebook thinks his name is fake and keeps taking down his profile.
I can’t imagine why Facebook would have a problem, as his name is pronounced more like “Phoo Da Bi.”
Good luck to you, sir. Fight the good fight. You da Bich!
He’s scored himself a bit of attention has our boy Phuc:D
Phuc Dat!
Makes me wonder if Dick Assman is having the same troubles.
That’s awesome!
In light of Brett Favre’s name, could someone legally change their name so it was spelled “Badass Motherfucker” but it was pronounced “John Smith”? That would really mess with Facebook, I bet!
Not to thread poop, but I drank a beer from Thailand. It was called “Phuc” something. I don’t remember exactly. Does that beer exist? Or is it marketing?
I suspect you had Phuket Beer, which does exist. Named after the island province in the South. Pronounced “Poo-Get.” There is nothing here called “Phuc,” which is purely a Vietnamese name.
Listening to the video of how to pronounce Mr Bich’s name, the surname is more like Bic than Bi.
Norway has dat Aass.
I’m glad to see that he takes the whole business with a sense of humor rather than with bitterness. If we could all take ourselves as lightly as Dat Bich, the world would be a happier place.
Thank you Sam. Here it is…
My fave butcher in Springvale (Melbourne, Aus) is Phuoc Dat…which gave my kids umpteen hours of giggles when they were little-uns. It’s still there, and still Phuouc Dat!
They don’t want people to be able to put up fake names and claim they are real.
Though it seems like there should be a way to prove that your name is real. I mean, he’s had trouble since freaking January.
Also, based on what this woman says, I’d probably transliterate it as foob dog big. There are clear stops that are missing, even if they are unreleased.
(In IPA, it’s actually [fuk daːt biʲk], but that’s more confusing, as it would make you think it’s Fook dot beak, when it isn’t.)
Or Dick Pound, for that matter.
On a somewhat unrelated note: I’m from Virginia originally, and I always get a hoot out of listening national news reporters reporting from the naval yards at Norfolk. They’re always very careful to tell you they’re reporting from “NorFOLK.” “Folks”, I’m here to tell you - that’s not how native Norphuccers pronounce it! I give you the probably spurious fight song of Norfolk High School:
We don’t drink and we don’t smoke,
Norfolk, Norfolk,
We don’t drink and we don’t smoke,
Norfolk all day…
However, it sounds even worse to my ears when someone carefully pronounces it the “correct” way, even if the best way would be to hastily pronounce it Norfuk. Then again I’ve never even been to Norfolk so I might be wrong.
Um, you do know that Australia is an English-speaking country, right? I’d put the odds of “Phuc Dat Bich” being a joke at 99%, at least. Mr. Bich just happens to be the other 1% of the time when it isn’t a joke, and that seriously is his name.
Actually, the sound in question is sort of what you might call a “swallowed schwa”; possibly, the best way to transcribe it might be something like “Norf’k”.
It’s now being reported as a hoax:
BBC story
Nooo! Phuc Dat Bich!
Similar thing in, perhaps, an earlier incarnation: in Leslie Thomas’s novel The Virgin Soldiers. The hero is in the British Army, serving in what was then Malaya, during the early-1950s insurrection there against British rule. Through an unfortunate misunderstanding, he shoots and slightly wounds an ethnically Chinese local, thinking him one of the “hostiles” when he is in fact harmless, and in the employ of the Army. The hero is accordingly disciplined for this error; however his commanding officer, when handing out the punishment, seeks to cheer him up a little by telling him the name of his victim: Fuk Yew.