Originally Posted January 13th, 2013
One of the great things about both being a Doctor, and periodically changing jobs/moving hospital/re-locating to a different part of the UK is that I frequently get to meet lots of new and interesting people. Unsurprisingly, I tend to get asked a lot of the same questions wherever I go, and so I thought it might be worthwhile to address some of these in a handy, easy-to-digest, obvious-sign-that-I-have-nothing-better-to-do Facebook note. And so, I humbly present to you: The Ramy FAQ™.
1) Q: “How do you spell your name? With an ‘i’, right?”
A: I don’t blame people for thinking this, but no, I can assure you it’s RamY. My full name should, technically speaking, be pronounced ‘Rah-mee Al-Roo-fair-ee’, but I actually say it ‘Ram-ee Al-Roof-eye’. Why the difference? To tell you the truth, I’m not actually sure how and why it all started – but I guess there’s no going back now!
2) Q: “What is Ramy short for, anyway?”
A: The truthful and boring answer is that it’s not actually short for anything – I’m just Ramy. Over the years, however, friends of mine have proposed a variety of possible elongated versions of Ramy – one of which I’m probably going to adopt one day, just so that I have a more interesting answer to the question “What is Ramy short for?”. Suggestions have included ‘Rambunctious’, ‘Ramzilla’, ‘Ramalicious’, ‘Ramy-bamy’, and – of course – ‘Ramalamadingdong’.
3) Q: “You must be Egyptian, right?”
A: Again, I can understand why people would think this (I’ve been told that I was named after an Egyptian poet/songwriter named Ahmed Ramy), but my parents are actually both Iraqi. I myself was born and grew up here in the UK; sadly, due to the ongoing political unrest, I’ve actually never even visited Iraq! Interestingly, at different times in my life I have variously been Spanish/Lebanese/Syrian/Palestinian/Iranian/Israeli, and even Indian/Pakistani.
4) Q: “Are you fluent in Arabic?”
A: If by “fluent” you mean “able to speak about ten words”, then yes. I do regret not ever having learnt to speak the language, yes – but the simple answer is that I’ve never done so because I’ve never really needed to. I hope to get around to it someday, though 🙂 .
5) Q: “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but … you’re not black, are you?”
A: Admittedly not a frequently asked question, but this is a genuine head-scratcher that was posed to me just a few short years ago. The answer, shockingly, is no…
I don’t know how interesting or useful this information has actually been to anyone, but – unfortunately – you’re kinda stuck with it now. In either case, thanks for reading!
Ramy’s World 