Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Sinnerman]

Ricky, Julian, Jim, Randy, Lucy, Sarah, Ray, Tyrone, J-Roc and Bubbles.

Or,

Ron, Jeremy, Jenna, Traci, John, Holmes, Peter.

[curlygirl]

[nathanrutledge]

[mellow-d]

Last year I used my students' Korean names. I would call on a student (from my seating plan) and the class would never fail to spend 5 minutes laughing at my pronunciation. Trying to check answers quickly became near impossible. Even though I take Korean classes and I'm pretty sure I was saying their names correctly, the laughing never stopped...for a year. It never got old with them! Don't you love middle school?
So this year, I got them to choose English names just for fun. The students seemed to really enjoy choosing a name and were pretty positive about the idea. A few students wrote their Korean names but I didn't push it. If they don't want one, that's okay.
I wouldn't worry too much about the "political/historical" aspect of this. My middle schoolers just think it's kind of a novelty. It's not like you're making them only use their English names in any other contexts other than in your English class. I think they might prefer you using this name over butchering their Korean name and embarrassing them in class.

[yoja]

What about ...

Oscar
George
Michael
George Michael
Lindsey
GOB ("Job")
Buster
Lucille
Tobias
Maeby
my personal favorite, Bob Loblaw





and ...





wait for it ...












Annyeong

[yoja]

you could also try some of the gems listed here:

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=199530

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=19103

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=174198

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=183522

[murmanjake]

Edith, Ingrid, Bertha, Florence, Gretta, Hilda

[alwaysbeclosing100]

i dont use English names......personal preference

[987psh]

pokemon names

[Kokoba]

I hate the concept of English names too, but if the school wants it...

Like other posters have mentioned, many of your students are going to come to you with English names already. If not, English names that sound similar to their Korean ones is a good start. Otherwise I would pick names of friends and family back home, list them on the board (by gender) and have a student circle one they liked.

One of my elementary classes I just stopped with the English names because they wanted to change them constantly and, like I said before, I'm not exactly a fan of it. I also had an older class (middle school) with a roll sheet entirely in Hangul. Neither class ever laughed at my pronunciation or found it amusing to the point of distraction.

A truly ambitious project would be to have the students tell you what their name means in Korean, and then go on the etymological hunt and see what English name corresponds the best.

I did have a whole host of goofy names but off the top of my head I can only remember a few: Kitty, Forum, Adolf, Conan...

[Gaegeum2003]

It's always funny when the students give themselves English names. My two personal favourite have been Piglet and Tinkerbell.

While my two favourite, that I've given students, are Sven and Pablo. They were best friends. Yes, I know, it takes true inspiration to name kids Sven and Pablo.

[austinchauncey]

Pick names that don't have F, L, R, Si/Sy, V or Z in them.

Overly common: Tom, Sandy, Sarah, Chris, Obama, Jean, Michael, Mary,

Favorite names I've given kids:
boys: Dean, Boo, Homer, Bart, Marley

girls: Jade, Maya, Dana, Pearl, Penny


Look at each kid, associate them with some characters or people, offer it up to them and you're all set. You're also more likely to remember that the short kid with huge glasses is Dexter (Dexter's Laboratory) rather than try to figure out if it's Chris 1, 2 or 3. If in the same class there's a girl who bugs Dexter or is tall and thin, call her Didi. The more storybook, television or film character combos you can get in one classroom, the better as you have to remember their names. It may not be a big deal if you have 5 kids, but some of us have 30+

[sirius black]

My first school had english names and it made things a lot easier. Could give a rats about this cultural imperialism, learn their names cr@p. Its easier for me as well, much easier.
I do try and give them a chance to pick their own english name and if they don't/can/t I've used the names of my siblings (as they have typical western names) as well as other popular names. Students have picked some interesting ones like Beyonce, Lebron (james the b-ball player), Brad (Pitt), Angelique (Jolie). Makes it fun.

I am surprised at the number of posts that say they don't use english names. Almost all my friends have english names for their kids when I hear them discuss their class. This is both hogwon and public school. Maybe it was just how that particular town was. I do think it gives them an added connection to english and I don't see anything wrong with that.

I recall in spanish classes in HS, we all got spanish names and they were based on our own names when possible John was Juan, Bob was Roberto, etc. I didn't lose my cutural identity because of it.

No offense to the OP but not sure trying to figure out what names to assign kids would warrant a post about it. Seems simple enough that hundreds of others figured out on their own. Is that difficult? Darn, am I becoming a typical DavesESL forum bully?

[curlygirl]

Nope Sirius, nobody could ever accuse you of being a bully It wasn't a case of "How on earth can I choose names?", it was a case of "Are there any methods that the experienced teachers here know of that I could use to make the process fun and interesting?". I appreciate all the replies and now, after the first week of teaching, all my students are very happy with their English names. I avoided all names with the letters f, v, z etc and we're working our way through lots of games and activities to get them to practice speaking and writing each others' names.

Thanks again everyone.

[NSMatt]

Name them after your favourite athletes, politicians, actors, or friends back home. I'm a big F1 fan so I've named some kids after race car drivers - Mark, Jenson, Michael, Sebastian