Job Discussion Forums

[mondrian]

One of the many tasks that fall on the FT shoulders is to give students an English name. Or perhaps correct an already taken but inappropriate name. One "campus couple "pair of students in Korea annoyed me so much with their blatant inattention in class that I gave them the names Romeo and Juliet (with the girl as Romeo)
However I recently read of another teacher's problems on this topic. I quote:

[M109A3]

My ribs are KILLING me.................

[Steppenwolf]

I have never asked any student to adopt a foreign name; on the other hand I demand that they familiarise themselves with appropriate terminology. It usually takes a lesson for them to understand what we mean by "first name" and "last name", because they really learn it the wrong way with their Chinese English teachers.

But the anecdote above is a good one. To me, it illustrates why it is best not to insist on students using names from other languages.

[Shan-Shan]

I found out today that one of my students calls himself "Sail Boat". A few weeks ago "Eggplant" was sprung on me. Their choice, not mine.

[Leon Purvis]

I've a Power Tool, a Stiffwater, and this semester a guy called himself Up and Down. His Buddy is Mr. Pud.

I've given up on the English name business. I call them by their Chinese names.

[Yu]

Currently, I have a Duff (which always makes me think of Duff Beer and the Simpson's) and Barbie and Ken---roommates, both girls. They claim they did not know the connection between the names.
Last year, I had a Chinky.
The year before that a Drinky, Apple, and Unicorn (male student).
and I cannot even being to count the prostitute names... Honey, Cherry

[Popsock]

I've had a number of inappropriately named students over the years too - Apple (though, hey! if it's good enough for Gwynnie and Chris...), Prince, Sweety, Ripe, Cinderella, Ella (for a boy - and he couldn't pronounce the "l" so it came out as "Error" - so perhaps that was rather apropriate), Ice, Bergkamp, Cuddle (definitely had to change that), Hot (ditto), Pink May, Brown May, Green May, Xena, Tool (got told to change that ), Diamond, Happy (anything but... ) and probably others which I've now forgotten.

Where do they get these names from? Still, if I had to choose a Chinese name for myself, I'd end up having to pick something like "Mao" so no comment really.

[JacquesP]

At the moment I only teach girls (future kindergarten teachers).

I have a Cinderella, Gorgeous, Princess, Queen, King, Heaven, Mellon [sic], Apple, Tomato (whose neighbour is called...), Potato, Meteor, Magic, Hover, Rain, Snow, Ice, Eleven, Pupu, Bobo, of course every class has a Sunny and... a girl called KFC!

[Kilroy]

I teach kids at a langauge mill, and quite frankly, I insist on a sensible English name. We have a policy at the school that the children are only allowed to speak English when they enter the premises. I speak precious little Chinese, (I came to China to teach English, not to study Chinese, or 'immerse' myself in Chinese culture - whatever that often touted term means - so go ahead, flame me), so I am clueless about Chinese names. Even if I tried using their Chinese names, I'd get the pronunciation wrong, resulting in a lot of teaching time being lost, and the danger of the class turning into a Chinese lesson for me... which is not what I'm getting paid to do.

In addition, I feel that if they want to learn English, at least have a proper English name to be used by the foreign teacher. I think it is part of my duties as the FT at the school to point it out to them that, Apple, Crocodile, and Shark are actually pretty stupid English names. (OK, I'm a little bit more tactful about it in front of them and their parents). The same goes for the spelling and the pronunciation of an English name... it has to match.

I normally have one of the Chinese teachers say their Chinese names for me, and then try to get a similar sounding English name, but not always. Sometimes I'll just pick English names off the top of my head. One always gets the "what does it mean?" question from the parents..... (sigh)

I try not to get too pedantic about the whole thing.... Sunny for a girl I won't insist on changing, as I can live with that. But sorry, I can't live with the name 'Apple'.....

The downside is that it can be a bit frustrating to have two Marys and three Amys in one class though....

[mondrian]

[Steppenwolf]

I quite agree with mondrian's observations as regards the pronunciation of Chinese names by non-Chinese speakers: our English learners have got to get used to their names being sandpapered by our teeth and lips.
I make it a point of reading up the names of my students before or during class; I never ask them to select an English name because a name is a personal property and we should respect a person's choice.
I do insist that our students learn to differentiate between first and last names the way we Westerners do; it seems many people opt out of these tricky areas by imposing a foreign name on our students which give them a new identity that remains alien and that will not be accepted by many of their peers and indeed, by their own family. Such adopted names are then nothing but a more or less helpful crutch.

But since their parents want them to emigrate or temporarily live abroad they really should learn to tolerate an approximation of their name in the pronunciation by foreigners.

[daodejing]

I don't think it's often an issue of being sandpapered by our "teeth and lips", it's just that pinyin is inconsistent and requires some training to read correctly. How is one supposed to know that cai is pronounced "tsai", or that the uan in yuan is pronounced "wen", whereas the uan in huan is pronounced "wan". I think maybe Chinese people who move to western countries should forget pinyin if it gives a misleading pronunciation of their names.

I knew a white guy nicknamed Apple by the way. I also gave out an English name to a Tibetan teen who could speak English. He said his name in Tibetan meant powerful or warrior or something, and for some reason Thursday had something to do with it, so I of course gave him the name "Thor" after the norse god. He had trouble with the th so I said he could pronounce it "Tor" as the Norwegians do.

[no_exit]

For kids, getting an English name can be fun, and an opportunity to take on a new identity as an English speaker. While I don't impose English names on students who don't want them, I don't see the harm in letting them choose a sensible English name for use in the classroom or wherever they see fit.

I do insist that if they're going to use English names, then they need to use proper names. Some of these kids *will* eventually go abroad, and imagine the humiliation of telling someone, or even worse, your whole class,"I'm Hard" and being met with ridicule and laughter.

The English name thing isn't unique to China or TEFL. When I took Spanish in high school, our teacher gave all of us a Spanish name. I remember the novelty of having a name in another language. I use a Chinese name with my Chinese colleagues, a normal, common name, and lots of Chinese find it preferable to using my real name, as it is familiar to them and easy for them to pronounce. Overseas Chinese often adopt English names when they move abroad for that reason. I think that choosing a local name is, for many, preferable to having your name constantly mangled by people who don't speak your language. In any case, I don't see how English names can be a bad thing, unless they're of the ridiculous sort that we see all too often.

[brsmith15]

In one class I had God, Jesus, and Satan.

Last year, there was a guy over 2 meters tall in one of my classes. He had the build of a Green Bay line backer. His English name?

Hello Kitty.