Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Chubby, do you know the answer to number three?
Here's the list students in an English club at my school used to pick their English nicknames, chosen by a Korean colleague probably because it's among the top Google results and is mirrored on a bunch of other sites. Maybe not the best thing to use for EFL students, but not too bad if you're trying to name your pet or a woman from the American South in 1857. I plan to write a big, long post about English names in Korea later, but for now I just wanted to let you know why you might have a Sniper, Adonis, Spotty, Primo, Scoop, or Roxy in your class.
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13 comments:
You didn't make it to z. "Zeppelin" and "Zorro" would make for an interesting class.
My personal favorite?
Weenie - 위니=======>프랑크푸르트 소시지, 장애물
Surely the suggestion of Weenie / 위니 is merely a mistaken transcription of Winnie ... I hope.
My hagwon also has a list of potential names for students to choose from, but - fortunately - I think it's different from the one you linked.
You could get a pretty good rock concert going with some of the names on that list: Blondie, Bono, Sting, Ringo, Prince, Madonna, Beck ... I'd also like to see Isis, Kali, Zeus, Apollo, Angel, and Bishop in a room together.
Samedi,
I included the Korean for a reason. It reads "Frankfurter," "Sausage," and "Obstacle???"
I don't think there is any mistaken translation.
This is just another reason I'm glad I teach upper year uni classes. By the time they get to me, they're a little more savvy about what constitutes a good (ie. professional-sounding) English name and what doesn't. My students have more of an incentive to have a good English name because they are hotel and tourism majors, and most of them take internships abroad.
I've had to nix a Princess last semester and another this one, and explain that some names they chose are not ENGLISH names at all (but are quite acceptable if that is the name they choose to use Stateside).
I'd rather concentrate on encouraging them to use their own (Korean) name--unless it is particularly difficult to pronounce--but spelling it in such a way that someone not familiar with Korean romanization would be able to pronounce it correctly (eg. Sun-young vs. Seon-yeong).
I had one student translate the chinese characters in his name into English. He was called "wise bell"
On my blog, I'm posting the name list I use to help students choose names and avoid overused ones. See you there.
Sweet! Verification word "dessess"
Best name choice: adolph
Matt --
Thanks for pointing that out. I don't know why I didn't make the connection the first time I read your comment. I humbly retract my earlier suggestion.
Princess is actually not a terribly rare name in the US; I happen to know one personally, and have run across a few more. I used to do clerical work for an insurance customer, and I went through customer databases. The idea of what constitutes an "English" or "American" name is not nearly as fixed as is typically represented in EFL circles, I think.
Besides, would you nix "black" names? Names originating from Spanish that are very common in the US? French names that are common in Canada?
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090325/odds/odd_us_names_odd
I heard second hand that someone had named their students after the first names of the Nazi war criminals. If true, that's pretty damn irresponsible.
Besides, would you nix "black" names? Names originating from Spanish that are very common in the US? French names that are common in Canada?
As stated, I've nixed a few names IN MY CLASS because they were not English names, but I explained to them they would be perfectly acceptable if that was the name they chose to use in their internships (eg. one guy chose the name Pietro) Nothing wrong with a Greek name, if that's what he chooses, but his Korean name is easily more pronouncable than Pietro.
As for "black" names, I wouldn't nix them, but if they got an internship in, say, Baltimore, I might explain that choosing the name ShaniQua might not be the best choice. Who knows how black clients in a largely black area would react to an Asian with a "black" name?
And as for Princess, I don't recall ever meeting anyone in an English-speaking country with such a name. I'm sure there must be some. But if you are going to CHOOSE YOUR OWN English name (for working in a business environment), why wouldn't you choose a more professional-sounding name?
Looks like someone just translated a baby name book.
Speaking of English names... Sometimes I get e-mail from my Korean clients, most of whom tend to be mid manager and up types at an automotive chaebol, and their personal e-mail addresses (since they mostly attempt to keep their legal issues hidden from their boss) can be quite funny in names they pick. Obviously, I can't give examples, as most are @hanmail, and it wouldn't be difficult to reconstitute the entire e-mail. But they range from lewd, juvenile, to pathetically grandiose.
Juicy, that's a good point, and something I notice all the time. Usually the names are just overly cute, like a 45-year-old with an email "babysweety615," or something like that. The Korea Times has a writer with the handle "foolsdie," and it appears on the bottom of all his articles. Another one I remember is a fifty-something English teacher who wrote a letter to the editor in the KT critical of NS English teachers. Her handle? fungus55. jfaw3jf8032w8ae.
Now that I think about it, they're nearly all strange. Nicknames, random numbers and letters, English letters corresponding to the place of hangeul on the keyboard, etc. Those might all be fine for casual purposes, but shouldn't be a professional email address.
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