Where the heck is Turin?

Are you as confused as me about where Turin is? If you look on a map of Italy, there is no such place. The town referred to as Turin is actually called Torino. If you travel to the Peidmont region in Italia, all signs read Torino.

Place names is an issue that I have pondered for many years. Why don't we call a city or country by what the people who live there call it?

This issue has arisen lately with the confusion of Turin and Torino. When I heard Turin, Italy on TV recently, I asked people in the room: "...but I thought the Olympics were in Torino?" We were all confused and had to look it up.

In this day and age we don't have any need to anglisize or simplify names. We can call places and people by their real names -- what the name really is. It is a bit insulting, don't you think? We can pronounce any name, even names written in other languages and alphabets. Just tell us how to say it and we can do it.

As a teacher I had many students in my class that kept their real names when they moved to Canada, the names on their birth certificates. No more need to make Man Yee a Mandy or a Sushan a Susan. We can pronounce Kon Woo and Soon as easily as Connor and Sean.

A few years back I traveled in China and visited Guangzhou. I wondered if we were close to Canton. I was already there, they told me -- Canton is now called by its rightful Chinese name -- Guangzhou. Of course it is no more difficult to say Guangzhou as it is to say Canton.

I live near Coquitlam and Tswassen, BC and no one has difficulty with those names.
Some places have changed back to their native names -- the Queen Charlotte Islands are now referred to as Haida Gwaii.

We can say it!

If we can pronounce people's names and place names, why on earth can't we call the city hosting the Olympics by it's real name -- Torino?

And for that matter, why not just start calling every place in the world by what the people there call it.

Let's start a movement.



.© Colleen MacDonald 2006