Comments on: Special English, another Christ, and Nazi

By: Rico

Rico — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 20:15:44 +0000

I have had male students named Ellen, Fine, Lemon, Orange, Power-Mouse, and Super and female students named Alin, Blue, Music, Pretty, Purple, and Red. There was also an instance where a Chinese teacher thought she could just add an “e” to Chris, spelling it Chrise, and it would be an acceptable female name. I quickly changed that student’s name to Chrissy.

As for the two cross-gender named students, I repeatedly tried to get Ellen to change his name to Allen and explained often that Ellen is a girl’s name. Same thing with getting Alin to change her name to Alina. What they would do, instead, is write the proper name on their papers in my class but continue to use the wrong names with their Chinese teachers.

Orange eventually changed his name to Harry on his own, Power-Mouse became Tito after I gave him a choice of names that began with the same letter as his Chinese given name, and Purple accepted a change to Violet after I said no way is this color a name and dragged her to the office. No luck with the others. The sad thing is that Pretty was actually quite ugly.

Chinese people do not think about how the names they choose sound to Westerners because there are not actual names in the Chinese language. Every thing they use as a name has a meaning. That is how people end up with names like Fire, Snow, Thunder, and so on. Or else they try to do it by sound and end up using offensive words like Nazi in the example above.

Another thing they do not understand is how to try to match their English name up with their Chinese given name. Anytime I give names to new students, I always do this. For example, a boy named Wang Jie Mi became Jamie Wang and a girl named Chen Hui Lao became Holly Chen. Many of them think English names exist in a vacuum and have no bearing on them.

By: China Blogging - Living in China, studying Chinese, web design and development. » File under Retarded: Chinese parents attempt to name baby “@”

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 21:34:20 +0000

[...] In any case, the Chinese preoccupation with choosing a name that has a good meaning quite often will result in a name that just induces stifled laughter among all who first meet them. This is common when choosing an English name. Just ask Chris about his old students Nazi and Christ. [...]

By: Regarding Hitler | Lost Laowai China Blog

Regarding Hitler | Lost Laowai China Blog — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 05:13:55 +0000

[...] my first post here at Lost Laowai, I wrote about a student of mine who calls herself Nazi. She is, in most ways, a [...]

By: Havelock

Havelock — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 10:42:41 +0000

Favourite Korean student name encountered at school:

Young Gun.

Not that’s not an Englishism, just his Korean name …

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 13:44:54 +0000

@Rick: There probably is a South Park episode like this. Could it be a stolen-media-of-the day? Let’s call that a challenge.

@Ryan: I see your “Horse” and raise you “Power” and “Sober,” in the same class. If you can top those, I have more.

@Expat007: The whole system is broken, at least in my university, probably in many others. I’ve never seen one of these dreaded tests, and I have no idea what’s on them. My department head often talks about “standards” and such, but she’s never been able to tell me what they are. Laughing at the whole thing keeps me sane.

By: expat007

expat007 — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 02:09:04 +0000

i cant believe some1 would possibly name herself NAZI? i guess nutz is better. my english teacher used to play FRIENDS in class, and the whole class had fun by watchin it. most of us study english for passin those endless fussy and stupid tests, and most of us found the LAOWAI teachers were not good at teachin those pass exam stuff.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 00:27:52 +0000

Currently I teach a “horse” and a random assortment of other animals and fruit, but my favorite, beyond a doubt is when some poor kid has been given (or chosen) the name “Dick” – particularly when they are one.

There’s nothing so satisfying as shouting over 30 kids in the classroom: “Shut your mouth – dick!”

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 23:48:52 +0000

There’s the makings of a South Park episode somewhere in that post.

nice one…