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Chinese Student's English Names?

 
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Sunpower



Joined: 22 Jan 2003
Posts: 256
Location: Taipei, TAIWAN

PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2003 1:54 pm    Post subject: Chinese Student's English Names? Reply with quote

The English names of my Chinese students who are in their 20s early 30s:

- Rocky
- Cherry
- Vivian
- Eunis
- Packy (a girl)
- Veronica
- Milly
- May
- Henry
- Robert
- Johnny (the guy must be 30 and won't accept John)
- kenny (doesn't like to be called Ken)
- Margret
- Sunny
- Matrix (he told me that this is his new English name)
- Mask (he uses this name and never removes his face mask)

What's with some of these English names they choose for themselves - Rocky, Eunis, Cherry, Packy (is this even English?), Veronica?
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dudette



Joined: 27 Feb 2003
Posts: 72
Location: Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2003 2:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had given some of my students popular English names, like Ashley, Nicholas (Nick), Monika, etc., but they have a section in the back of their dictionaries with the supposed meaning of these names. I've had the teacher make students change their names from, say, Ashley to Bessy, because Ashley is "not a good English name", according to this dictionary. They want a good English name, but it must also be a good name translated in Chinese! Go figure... Rolling Eyes

Here's to the Bessies, Agathas, Edisons, Florences, Francises, and Smiles of China!
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wix



Joined: 21 Apr 2003
Posts: 250
Location: Earth

PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2003 2:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've met the following:

Sinney (female)
Chakotay (male) -- apparently this is the name of a Star Trek character
Panda (male and female)
Shine (female)
Kitty (female) -- as in Hello Kitty Rolling Eyes


Last edited by wix on Mon Jun 02, 2003 12:30 am; edited 1 time in total
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Sunpower



Joined: 22 Jan 2003
Posts: 256
Location: Taipei, TAIWAN

PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2003 3:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wix - Yeah, I've come across a Kitty as well.

ha, aha, haa!

That's weird shi t about the teacher telling students to change their names because they don't sound nice in Chinese.
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dudette



Joined: 27 Feb 2003
Posts: 72
Location: Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2003 3:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, I've got a Panda, too, and a couple of Demon's, and a Kayt (male), and a Kim (male), and an Apple (male) and a Sky (male), and a Lick (male) who changed it to Like and then to Lewis, finally. And it's not that some of the names don't sound nice in Chinese, I think that, if the name doesn't mean something like loyal, responsible, trustworthy, etc., then it's not a "good" name. Rolling Eyes
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Sunpower



Joined: 22 Jan 2003
Posts: 256
Location: Taipei, TAIWAN

PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2003 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah! Dudette, I've also got:

- Apple (girl about 21)

- Sky (guy about 14)

Where are they getting these names from?
Ha, aha!!
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dudette



Joined: 27 Feb 2003
Posts: 72
Location: Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Mon Jun 02, 2003 4:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh, I almost forgot my Einstein, Huck and Elves (male, male, female respectively) !!!

Wink

Cheers!
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Hsinchuguy



Joined: 09 Apr 2003
Posts: 109
Location: Toronto

PostPosted: Mon Jun 02, 2003 5:23 pm    Post subject: student's names Reply with quote

With all the negative feeling going around with SARS it's good to see that some have kept their sense of humour, good posting Sunpower, Dudette and others. Please allow me to add my own contributions to this subject..

Apple (F)
Brown (M)
Bird (M)..he was a man in his late thirties who said that he was as free as a..
Superwoman (F), an 8 year old girl
Vicky (M), a young boy
Tiger (M),
Rainbow (F)
Rodman, Jordan, Pippin (all M), back when the Bulls were NBA champs

cheers, Hsinchuguy
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matchstick_man



Joined: 21 May 2003
Posts: 244
Location: Taiwan

PostPosted: Tue Jun 03, 2003 12:45 am    Post subject: i have Reply with quote

an elvis and bing in the same class.....i once had a King.....I had a vampire (now allen)...i have a Raff and an Apple, a Joy (male) and a Baby(now vicky) Eiffel, Einstein and i'm sure htere are more strange ones there's apparently a Job(good outdated biblical name).
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7969



Joined: 26 Mar 2003
Posts: 5782
Location: Coastal Guangdong

PostPosted: Tue Jun 03, 2003 4:54 am    Post subject: here's a few of my students names.... Reply with quote

godspeed, sunny, spring (which i kind of like), play, wind, dog.... and so on.
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pintobean



Joined: 04 Jul 2003
Posts: 20

PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2003 3:51 am    Post subject: ha Reply with quote

while I was in Hong Kong I had friends named Salad, Polanda, Monitor, Farmer, Eunice, Venus, etc
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Aristotle



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1388
Location: Taiwan

PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 5:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Engine, Fan, Sweety, Dim, DooDoo ( I reused to call here that and we compromised on DoDo). My favorite was Spicy a 19 year old female that was the living image of that name. She would dress like Madonna for class. She did a great Sharon Stone impersonation.
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Steiner



Joined: 21 Apr 2003
Posts: 573
Location: Hunan China

PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 11:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

More names, all from my jr. high classes on the mainland-
Snoopy
God (but he changed it)
Gentleman
Ximen (not an English name)
Puppy
Lemon
Mint
Second
Einry
Brain
Joy (a boy)
Kiki (a boy)
Event
Alf
Pot
Bald
Holy (maybe she meant Holly?)
Green
Ery
Canning
Eleven
Chill
Ice
Aewa

and Kinki. We made Kinki change her name, but not until the last day of class. We never knew her name until then.

One problem, as has been mentioned, is that students want a name with a particular meaning, which limits their choices of common English names or turns them to the dictionary. Never mind that hardly any native speaker knows what most English names mean, it still has to have a good meaning. We try telling our students that most English-speaking parents choose a baby's name for reasons other than its meaning, but to no avail.

George=farmer, Paul=small, Philip=lover of horses, Mary=bitter, Cynthia=the moon personified.
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