| Why do you, a chinese, have a english name? | |
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| Sep 2, 2005 10:53 | #11   |
 | How many of you have an italian, french, spanish, russian, etc. name? Chinese study essentially english, so they pick an english name. A second language is considered as forbidden or what? I have a japanese friend who's name is Jose [Spanish]. But when somebody asks me what's my "english" name I just want to puke /tu As a first year teacher in China, I tried to memorize 802 chinese names [all students], impossible. 16 classes, 40-50 students/class. Next year I moved to Qingdao, new classes, new students, new lists of students. To tell you the truth when I saw some "english" names I was so happy. But I encourage them however to use their real names. I can always remember the best students, those who were always active. This year, same story..new classes, new... PS: My major is Chinese! :( headache!""" :))) |
| Sep 3, 2005 14:09 | #12 |
| missunderstanding i m sorry maybe i m not explain my meaning very well. the name is only one off the throwings in china. if chinese can learn englisg. at least the forigener learn the real names off the student. this unpolite to change names for all the class becaouse the teacher "couldnot" remember the names. sorry i cant understood that. many chinese name r not so long and not so hard to say. |
| Sep 5, 2005 01:48 | #13 |
| to DOUTIN : what subject do you teach ? Can't be Chinese??? |
| Sep 5, 2005 02:13 | #14 |
| To BENNER: i prefer their chinese names but they insist on the ENGLISH one To CONNY: right, can't be chinese. i am still a beginner in this field, i mean the chinese. i am not sure i can teach Chinese chinese :)) |
| Sep 5, 2005 02:17 | #15 |
| I can't say anything now...... |
| Sep 5, 2005 03:21 | #16 |
| hehe~~ so that is to say you teach Chinese students English ,although you want to call their English names ( can I say that is because u want to learn and memorize some Chinese characters)they insist on English one for they want to be fully involved in English culture,am I right ? |
| Sep 5, 2005 10:20 | #17 |
| haha CONNY, i'm not learning chinese from my students' names. i have two chinese teachers for this. i don't like writing, so memorizing caracters is probably when i hit the 90's.. :)) i always write their names in pinyin [pronunciation] if they don't have an "english" one. how many foreigners can write chinese, so i'm not supposed to do it as well. only for the administration i have to know their chinese names, but i can always ask the monitor to do this for me, and i just write the grades. who cares the names, they all have a number..对吧？ recently, when i pronounce their names in chinese they enjoy it ;-) actually, who cares if it's a foreign, sorry, english or chinese name. they chose it, i never do this. if they like it that's ok. but when they pick names like Kitty, and it's a boy who's supposed to become a seaman..let's be more precise, a captain..or Brooky, as one of my friends [sounds like spooky]. another one calls himself Ben because he thinks he's "so stupid" [pronunciation "ben" in chinese means stupid, he said].. don't want to mention the worst ones... "english names"?!... mama mia... |
| Sep 6, 2005 04:18 | #18 |
| Many chinese Singaporeans have such names too just like myself. We don't call this as our English name. No! Not at all. We call it a adopted name. Our chinese name is a given name. In most cases, the chinese name is given by our parents. Some chinese with english names could be a Christian and baptised with this name. Foreigners should never confused the issue. Romanised chinese is also to facilitate international communications. How else would foreigners be able to read chinese characters. be thankful! Likewise the english name as eplained by kind members earlier is to facilitate communications. Thats all. Nothing to fuss about. It is only a adopted name. Nothing wrong about it. Foreigners should be thankful as it makes communications easier. I think some foreigners with unusual names should also adopt a english name just like us. It would make the newsreaders job a whole lot easier...some foreign names are just plain difficult to pronounce. Tongue twisters I would say. Go get a english name!!! |
| Sep 6, 2005 15:53 | #19 |
| Terry, Your explanations convinced me. Really, the adoption of an English name can be seeing as a kindness of the Chinese with the western people. Although of this, some difficult names will continue exist in all languages. My tongue mother is derived of the Latin. Then it’s easy for me to understand others languages that come of these common root. I can understand Spanish and I never learned it. The great difficulty is to understand Chinese. We, the western people, need to learn it. China is a word power. Independently of the will of a few, China will grow more and more. Someday, a century ago, to speak French was a necessity. A lot of good books were written in French. Later the English language wins the place where it is now. I don’t admire me if few years later the Chinese language should have an important place in the world. Only one thing I hope of the Chinese people: help the world to be more peaceful! Use all your power, not only to make money, but to help all of us to live better. I know this is your wish too. |
| Sep 16, 2005 12:38 | #20 |
| So Benner, What nationality are You??? It's not a Chinese name either. Ever had to teach more than 1000 Chinese students in a week. I defy anyone to learn all their names when you only see them once a week. No Chinese national teacher (or any other country's for that matter) is expected to undertake such a monumental task. I personally ask all my students if they would firstly like an English name for my class and if they would like some help choosing it. Some of them choose some ridiculous names and not just from the English language either. When students choose to use their Chinese name in class I have them write it in Pin Yin so I can at least attempt to address them, but few of them include the tones so I am still left botching thier names in an effort to be polite. Who know's what I am really addressing them as. Names of two syllables like Da Shan, Wu Yi, Xiong Rui, Li Long I can master after some time but it is not until you have learned the Chinese Phonetics that it becomes easier. But three syllable names are a real problem and I even have trouble learning the names of close Chines friends. Try Chen Hai Xiao, Li Hai Shu, Wang Jie Ping by the thousands. As most of us come here at the invitation of the Chinese government to teach English we are often also learning the language amongst other things as we go (not an easy thing)and one of the little concessions to help us manage in this strange but facinating land is for the English learning population to embrace thier learning by ADOPTING an appropriate name if they so choose. |
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