Korean Job Discussion Forums

agraham · Joined: 19 Aug 2004 Location: Daegu, Korea

I let a class of twelve year old boys name themselves. Now they are Pervert, Fool, DDR and Cart Rider. DDR stands for Dance Dance Revolution which is a video game. Cart Rider is another video game. I've asked them several times if they'd like to change their names, but they're quite happy with them.

OiGirl · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: Hoke-y-gun

Snowmeow · Joined: 03 Oct 2005 Location: pc room

To me Koreans are very picky about pronunciation and if I say something in Korean to students the least bit incorrect, they all laugh. I have seen the same with taxi drivers in my first few months - a couple wouldn't drive me because I didn't say the name of my suburb totally correct.

Example about the importance they place on pronunciation: dong. Places are called dong, they have dong in their names and they don't get all giddy about it, despite how similar it seems to their word for poo.

So to me it seems un Korean for them to be concerned if the name Jill sounds like some part of their anatomy, or have problems with other names, unless it sounds exactly like the Korean word.

schwa · Joined: 18 Jan 2003 Location: Yap

SeoulShakin · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

I'm pretty new to the teaching thing, but I got a kick out of one student's name. At first I thought it was a spelling mistake, and that in fact it was supposed to be Paul. Wasn't the case.... his name is Baul

Baul is pronounced Bowel - as in your sh*t system. Everytime I say his name, I feel I should add "movement" afterwards. We have tried changing it, but he loves his name and refuses to budge.

joe_doufu · Joined: 09 May 2005 Location: Elsewhere

Some students have names to rhyme with their siblings. For example in my school, Eddy's younger brother is Nety; and Nelly's sister is Melanie. Melanie's classmate Shelly is often called Shelanie by their friends. We have two Toms in one class, I've tried to name them Tom and Tommy, or Tom X and Tom Z, or Tom1 and Tom2, but the class insists on calling them Black Tom and White Tom because their skin colors differ slightly.

Beware of naming them after nouns, because a lot of English nouns have been adopted into the Korean language. I thought I could get away with naming a boy Scooter but every student knew about the vehicle by that name.

Best names ever: I know a Taiwanese guy named Toner Wang, and a Cantonese woman named Winndy Fan.

BadEgg · Joined: 08 Jan 2006 Location: UK

I had a student last year called Brian.
One day he told me he wanted to change his name.
"Ok," I replied. "What do you want to change it to?"
"P-nis," says Brian.
"What"??? I replied, somewhat shocked by his response.
"P-nis," he says again.
Now, I'm not sure how to respond to this request. I'm trying to figure out if he knows what he is saying and he's taking the piss out of me, or if he is really unaware of the meaning of the word. So I fiegn confusion and say "really? I don't know that name. What does it mean Brian?"
"You know," he says. "P-nis!! P-nis!! - a big fiery bird."
Turns out he wanted to be known as Pheonix.
I told him he couldn't change it until he could pronounce it properly.

douglaswilliam · Joined: 25 Aug 2010

No more 'Willy's or "Dorothy's. gall-darn it. i have like 85 of each.

At the other end of the spectrum... I have a student who gave himself the name "Exoforce". Ha ha! Awesome name.

Kaypea · Joined: 09 Oct 2008

Some Koreans have religious sounding biblical names. I can't type hangul on here, but I have a student named eh-seu-ta and a sem-u-el. I only have one kid who goes by a chosen English name, and it's Esther. If I ask kids to pick English names, they're all joke names, so I don't bother.

s.tickbeat · Joined: 21 Feb 2010 Location: Gimhae

I have a Vermouth, Ghandi, Tuna, Crazy, Sparrow, Mongchongi (stupid), Canada, Merry Christmas, and two Pororo's. They all love their names.

I once named a kid Jonah, and it took four weeks for me to change his name. Every day he'd complain and the kids would laugh: "teacher, Jonah is a bad word in Korean! Very bad word!"

Turns out, Jonah is p-nis in Korean. I laughed SO hard when I found out. Very Happy

!

Now, his name is Josepha (his choice).

chrisassd · Joined: 04 Apr 2010

I've got a Wood... and a Haha.

I also teach a kid called Sam which the other kids think is hilarious because when I say it in my British accent they think I'm calling him teacher in Korean.

Kaypea · Joined: 09 Oct 2008

PastorYoon · Joined: 25 Jun 2010 Location: Sea of Japan

At one of the schools a Korean co-worker named a boy Pu*sy. Being of a nice-hearted nature, I suggested to change his name.

stimpleton · Joined: 17 Oct 2006 Location: Suwon

At the start of the year I named all the kids in my 5yr kindy class. A few of the moms wanted to change their kid's name, which is no biggy. I was a little disappointed because I'd named them after super heroes (You know, their 'secret' identities). Anywho, one of the kids changed his name to Juice. When I pointed out it was a drink, not a name, the response was "He likes the word, so he wants it to be his name. His Mom agrees."

Ah, nothing like giving the 5-year-old all the power.

Troglodyte · Joined: 06 Dec 2009

I never give kids an English name unless they really want it or if the school insists. But if it's just the school insisting, then I refuse to refer to the kid by his real name and pretend that I don't know it. Since the Korean teachers and secretaries have no idea what the kids' English names are, they usually let me go back to using their real names. It's just a pain in the butt to remember both names, especially since they change their English name so often.

Sometimes though I give them theme names. i.e. every one in the class gets names that have something in common. I had one class with hillbilly type names (Billy-Bob, Betty-Sue, Zed, Bubba, etc), one named after Greek gods, one class all had names starting with "J". I had another class where all the girls were named Eunice (Eunice 1, Eunice 2, Eunice 3, Tall Eunice) and all the boys were named Jack.

I've also gotten some kids (and a few middle aged adults for that matter) who chose weird names. I had one guy in his 40s chose "Neo" (back when the first Matrix film was popular. He was sure that it was a real name. I also had one kid name himself "Beans Cutter". I asked him a few times if he really meant Beans Cutter. Yep. A few weeks later he mentioned that Beans Cutter is a famous basketball player ---> Vince Carter. It was hilarious when I figured it out because for weeks I'd been calling him Beans and even taught him how to write it. Another kid actually wanted the name Bush.