Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Young FRANKenstein]

[SPINOZA]

아름 doesn't mean beauty.

I had a 한아름 and I too was under the mistaken impression that her name meant beauty for some time.

[Junior]

[SPINOZA]

[SeoulFinn]

Spinoza, you weren't mistaken. 아름 can also mean beauty. As a given name it can also mean "healthy", even though this meaning is mainly reserved for the male members of the species.

Anyway, "Handful" would be a wonderful name for a woman, right?

Dude A: "Look at her, she's a Handful, isn't she?"
Dude B: "Waa! Yes, she certainly is!"

[SPINOZA]

I recently taught a female student at a summer camp called 김 아름다운.

[Been There, Taught That]

Let's just admit that People of any stripe are just as likely to want what they imagine to be good names for their kids. Foresight, you'd think, would tell them, though, that it's the offspring who have to live with the dis/advantages of that choice. That choice can be the most influential in a child's life, even when you add in all the choices the child him/herself makes.

Add to that the burden of having to come up with a new name based on an adopted culture. This time, you get (that is, have)to choose your own, or at least grudgingly accept what you get (I actually don't know who must do the Western name-giving, but I think it's rarely that a FT would give one that sticks, unless, as has been said, the student gets into a don't-care-what-I-name-myself mood.

So the important task of assigning Western names may not be all that life-and-death to students, but I'll bet it is to parents. Everything down to accent improvement seems to be some kind of charm to bring better fortune--and that much more stress--to English learning.

So I don't think there's any arrogance involved at all. There's simply an attempt to get noticed, to stand out. Who doesn't have their ways? It's just that names really are impressions we have of people, and Western names in Korea are a playground--and a serious stress release, potentially. Sometimes it must be like wearing a costume to school every day. I never, ever liked dress-up days when I was in school, but I sure noticed those who really, really did.

Even very young Korean students know by now that names like Steve and James and Bob (and Sheila) are typical and common and don't get noticed. The advantage for them is that going out of bounds is very much allowed. And naming themselves after objects or furniture or car names (I once taught a class with a Buick (don't laugh; he loved that name) in it) is fun, no matter who thinks what. Ever had a student who didn't seem to care what the FT thought of him/her? Go through the history of that student's western names, especially the ones who seem to change them often . I don't really know the frequency, but I'm sure students must also feel free to change their names whenever the mood hits them. It's the beautiful, strange, influential names that stir up emotions which hang on the longest. So, I'm not surprised Beautiful Me, no matter what the motivation for it, is a name this girl is happy about. There are probably more people who understand it and smile and go their way than ever comment about it. Doubtless she had plenty of experience introducing herself with it.

And it was church, after all, where we ask ourselves why we, not others, are there.

Only the birth name is written in stone. All else is anyone's bet.

[endo]

[riley]

Why do Korean people here feel such a need to have English names anyways? What's wrong with their name? I don't like it and I feel weird to have someone who's obviously foriegn tell me some plain vanilla English name. It doesn't feel right. Not to mention, the ones who really have a bug up their ass over an English name is the one that can't speak that much English.

Speaking of this, what's with Starbucks and some other places I've seen giving their staff English names? Do they really think that we can' say their name?

This was just a rant and not reflective of my general attitude, so I'm not really that tense over it, it's just stupid to worry about an English name when you have a perfectly fine one that if I try hard, I can speak.

[endo]

Cause Korean names are hard as hell to remember. Especially when you're talking to a girl at a club.

[jeffkim1972]

All of you need to lighten up.

1. They're not conceited or arrogant or think they are the most beautiful woman in the world.

2. Most of them sometimes takes learning English as a joke or lightly and they just like to play around.

3. There is nothing wrong with someone thinking they are beautiful. It would means a) beautiful on the inside, not necessarily model material.

Geez, If some chubby white girl was joking around with the Korean Language and said my name is "Arum Daum" and that's the only Korean she knew. I would giggle too. More power to them.

Or maybe the OP is just a good troll and wanted to write a completely idiotic post to see how many people would agree with him.

[jeffkim1972]

[Been There, Taught That]