Actual Conversation Peter had at work with a client that called in.

Back ground information first.

My husband is Chinese.

His "legal"  first and last name are the same, but he goes by Peter.

He works for a company that manages tuition for schools k-12.

The client, let's call her Carry, called in to ask for some help with the new system.  This particular client was not Peter's, he took the  call to help out a co-worker.

It went like this.

"Hello this is Peter, how can I help you?"

"Yeah Peter this is Carry.  Can you help me delete some students from our database?"

"Sure I can help you with that.  What are their names?" Peter asks.

"H-U-A-N-G" (insert some for of pronunciation in which she butchers it. But in all honesty I would probably butcher it too) Carry says.

"Yeah we will go ahead and delete her. Do you have a lot of Chinese students in your school?" Peter asks.

"We have 29, it is getting to be a little too much." Carry says

"Are they exchange students?" Peter asks.

"Yeah the are.  We can't take them all or we would have like a gazillion of them." Carry says.

Poor Carry........ she then proceeded to spell out all of the other names and butcher them as well.  Not all of the names were Chinese, there were other nationalities to be deleted as well.

She  then came upon a Chinese student with the same first and last name.

She spelled it out then said,  "Who would name their kid with the same first and last name?"


"Oh I don't know."  Peter replies.

"The final students last name is Anderson.  I don't need to spell that one for you." Carry says.


 "Is there anything else that I can help you with today?"  Peter asks.

"No that was it.  Thank you Peter." Carry says and hangs up the phone.


Peter got off the phone and immediately told his co-workers.

 It just goes to show you that you never know who is on the other end of the phone.