The biggest snub was our collective ears for having to listen to "Hammer-steen."
Using Harvey Fierstein as an example, a steadfast rule of German pronunciation is that the "ie" should be pronounced as in the word "fear" and the "ei" should be pronounced as in "stine" (or "wine"
. Therefore, Harvey's last name should be "Fear-stine" (most likely, it was originally some derivation of Vierstein as the "v" is pronounced like an "f", directly translating as "four stone"
. Having studied German language for sveral years, every time I see his name and hear someone say it, my brain hiccups because it doesn't make sense. At any rate, everybody says "Wine-steen" and "Fire-steen" incorrectly, so I guess "Hammer-steen" shouldn't be a big deal, either. In general, Americans don't really seem to give a crap about pronouncing anything correctly, especially foreign words and surnames. My last name is Polish and pronounced EXACTLY how it is spelled (again, using the American phonetics). It's really not tricky at all if you bother to actually look at it, but 99% of those saying it ever bother to try and actually read it.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian