THE HOTA PAY NICKNAME

The first time the Spanish teacher called John Paul "Hota Pay," the room laughed. By the next class, the joke had worn thin.

John Paul, who goes by J.P. to friends, teachers, and family, says that is the name everyone uses, everyone except one high school Spanish teacher. In Spanish class, the teacher kept turning the initials into a pronunciation John Paul says sounds like "Hota Pay," and using it out loud in class instead of J.P.

At first, the poster laughed along. It seemed like a one-off remark, the kind of thing that might pass as a quick classroom joke. But the teacher did not drop it. The nickname kept coming back, class after class, until it stopped sounding playful and started sounding irritating.

John Paul says the teacher's version was not a slip of the tongue. After class, they asked to be called J.P. instead. The teacher refused. According to the post, the teacher said, "this was Spanish class," and that "Hota Pay" was "the Spanish equivalent of my name."

The explanation did not end there. John Paul says the teacher also made it clear that he was not using any rude words. He was, in his view, simply translating the pronunciation of the two-letter English name into Spanish. In other words, the teacher considered it a language lesson, not a slight.

John Paul did not see it that way. The repeated name felt unwanted, especially after the direct request to stop. "Even if it is harmless, I just don't like it and prefer J.P.," the poster wrote. The issue, as they framed it, was not whether the teacher meant offense. It was that the teacher kept using a name the student did not want used.

The post ends with the question hanging in the air: is John Paul wrong for pushing back on a Spanish teacher who insists on calling them "Hota Pay"? The poster says they live in the USA, and for them, the name everyone knows has always been the same simple one: J.P.