Asian name pronunciation?

The name "Nguyen" is pronounced "new-win" as I have heard - very interesting (sounds like some sort of French pronunciation to me!)

What about the last name "Ng"???? Logic suggests that it would be "New" (the first part of New-win) but that may be wrong.

It appears to be a very common name, so given that at some point I will interact with a Mr or Mrs Ng, how do I correctly say their name?

 

It is pronounced very much like this:
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~bigger/subsounds/sonar1.au

 

I believe "Ng" is pronounced as "Eng". It's a Chinese last name. "Nguyen" is a Vietnamese last name, and it's a very popular last name. Nobody except Vietnamese can pronounce "Nguyen" correctly. The closest pronunciation is probably "Win" or "New-win", as you mentioned. Some people pronounce it "Nu-gent".

Major companies such as Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop, Microsoft or Intel has a lots of "Nguyen" working there, and no, most of them are not related in anyway.

 

The first one I think is more like 'new-yen' to me...more of a vietnamese name from what I heard...

Second would be 'eng' with a hard 'g'...Chinese/Taiwanese name in my experience...

 

You are a real bastard I was laughing out loud!

I think F-chat needs to get you a group XMas present for all the humor you bring to the board on a daily basis. Don't ever quit Wax!

 

It's pronounced "WIN" simply
I've had many afriend named Nguyen and it is jsut "WIN"
No "New" oabout it

 

LOL LOL LOL

 

to Ric's point, the last name "Ng" implies a surname of chinese decent, and the last name "Nguyen" implies a surname of Vietnamese descent. The "Ng" last name is pronounced pretty much with an "i" in front of it (or sometimes commonly spelled out as "Eng"). However, that's not the full story. While it's accepted vernacular in the US to pronounce it "Ing" and tell people to pronounce it "Ing," the true chinese pronunciation is more in line with its phonetic spelling. Think, the lingering sound after saying "tongue..." Nonetheless, most chinese people with this last name tell everyone to say "Ing" anyway.

Individuals with the last name "Ng" tend to be cantonese chinese speakers, oftentimes from hong kong. When the character for that last name belongs to a native mandarin dialect speaker, it becomes "Wu." Which is pronounced "woo." But is often spelled as "Wu," by individuals who are from predominantly mandarin-speaking areas (e.g. mainland china and taiwan).

 

hahah

 

In the land down under it's pronounced: "new-en"