No sir, I am not that much in touch with my feminine side

I was going to blog from Reeperbahn (I find it slightly worrying that T9 actually recognizes that word) but instead exhaustion got the better of me, so I'm in the hotel, ready for bed.

But idly I wonder about why my name seems so feminine to many non-Finns. The hotel tv greets me as "Mrs Jalkanen", and someone has placed a women's magazine on the table for my convenient perusal.

Well, no big harm done :). If some computer out there thinks I'm a woman, let it be. Computers need their fun, too.

Update: I need to check my handwriting. The hotel bill this morning was addressed to

Mrs. Janne Jalkanen
Algrsis Rivon Katu
00510 Mozinski
Finland

NOT quite where I imagine living. And the poor clerk looked very confused as she looked me in the eye and went: "M...errr Jalkanen?", as she was trying to decide which one was correct: the computer or her eyes. :-D



Comments

Ah, with me it's the other way around - I'm always Mr.

--Milla, 26-Aug-2004

E-ending seems to be more feminine in some languages.

In the Reality Dysfunction series by Peter Hamilton, there's a female mercenary whose first name is Janne. It was a bit disorienting at first...

--Pare, 26-Aug-2004

Jane and Jan are both common female names in the USA. Maybe it thought it was a spelling mistake?

--JPS, 26-Aug-2004

Janne is actually a female name in Norway and the Netherlands, at least.

Luckily mine is so rare and its suggestive gender is wholly dependent on culture that people usually go with whatever I announce myself as. Except in the UK, where they lovingly embrace the jocular, suggestive undertones of it and insist on calling me 'Tiger'.

--Taika, 26-Aug-2004

You should change the spelling to that of the creepy new age Yanni, then people might know you're a man.

http://www.wapers.com/music/yanni/yanni1024.jpg

Or maybe not.

--http://bluehole.org/, 26-Aug-2004

Perhaps I'll just rather be myself and reap loads of fun every time someone else gets confused :-D

--JanneJalkanen, 27-Aug-2004

No, no, let ME be you (and you can be someone else). I've always wanted to be a world famous techno-geek/Finnish Blogger. Since I was a lad, Really!! :-) I'll even wear the dress!!

--Foster, 27-Aug-2004

Err... You're scaring me now, Foster :-D

--Janne Jalkanen, 28-Aug-2004


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