Job Discussion Forums

[Deborann]

As far as I know there are MANY language schools in China.

I teach in one of the public universities, and work in the Business faculty lecturing in International Management and Human Resources Management (3rd and 4th years). But I have 4 classes (the 40+) ones of 1st year Business students that I teach Speaking and Listening to. I am required to call a roll at the commencement of each class and even for the biggest class (100+) this does not take as long as you would expect.

My students are therfore focussed on their business studies and most of my work in the S & L classes is to aimed at increasing their ability to communicate effectively in a business setting. I use their full names whenever I call the roll, and also when I call on them to respond.

If you are learning Chinese it is not that hard - just gives you another chance to practice. My students will congratulate me when I get it right, just as I congratulate them on doing well.

Would you expect a teacher of Chinese or any other nationality teaching in your home country to give you a nickname, diminutive or another name merely because it was easier for them? Or call you by number?

[Lynn]

I know that in Japan taking another name is strictly taboo. In college I had a Japanese classmate name "Lisa". That wasn't her real name. The other Japanese students could not bring themselves to call her that. I felt so bad for her. I think her real name was Yuki or Yukie which are both beautiful names in Japanese, but I can see how that can easily turn into the English word "Yucky!". I only called her Lisa.

Just the other day here in Seattle I went to a yoga class and the teacher introduced herself as "seiko". She didn't know I could speak Japanese. I saw a flyer for the school and I noticed that her name was actually, "saiko". Saiko is also a beautiful Japanese name, but in English is sounds like, "psycho". I don't blame her for going by "seiko" it probably just saves her time explaining and going through the whole joke thing.

My middle name is Lynn, but first name is different. In Japan I use write my name phonetically in katakana(Japanese characters) but still so many Japanes do not want to call me this. They insist that the English spelling doesn't match. So now I just keep my English spelling a secret.

I also had a friend named, "Holly". She hated how Japanese called her "Ho-li" I said, "why don't you just write "ha-li" since that is how it is pronounced in English?"

The most important thing is to call someone what he/she wants to be called; not what you think is right.

*exceptions for those students who chose names like sh*t or f*ck or something*

[Roger]

[Deborann]

[Kurochan]

You know, when I was in Chinese class, my teacher ASSIGNED Chinese names to us, and we HAD to use them. So I guess we can't say it's some sort of exclusive imperialist practice if we ask our students to use a Western name in class.

Actually, the name assignment really had a good side -- I was able to end up with a "real" Chinese name that was better than one I could have picked myself. Learning to write it turned out to be useful too in SZ, where I had to put it on bank and medical forms. My name was hard to say/write, though, and I always felt jealous of kids called things like "Li Po."