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desultude

Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Location: Dangling my toes in the Persian Gulf
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 5:11 pm Post subject: |
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Free World wrote: |
Privateer wrote: |
RACETRAITOR wrote: |
Koreans really think that foreigners can't pronounce their names. |
Sometimes we can't. |
I have trouble with the family name ��. |
Yeah, that is my department chair's name, and I do have a time with it. He and I had a discussion about the best way to westernize the spelling, for a book he was writing. I think we settle on the unsatisfactoty "Lew".
My own given name translates to Chinese meaning "morning peace". I said that once before on the board, and someone immediately knew my given name. I don't remember why, but I was asked once to pick a Korean name, and a friend showed me how to write mine in hangul.
I only use western names for my students if they insist, even the children in camp. |
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kermo

Joined: 01 Sep 2004 Location: Eating eggs, with a comb, out of a shoe.
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 6:32 pm Post subject: |
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Why not "Ryu"?
It really helps if you speak French, or another language with "rolled" 'r's, because �� is a single "roll", sort of like a soft flick where a 'd' or 't' would be pronounced. |
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Lemonade

Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Location: South Korea
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 6:33 pm Post subject: |
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I had one college freshman name himself "Satan" and another one name himself "Demon." I told them to change their names immediately, which provoked whining and crying out "WHY!" "Demon" decided to comply with my request and by changing his hame to "Prince" This provoked "Satan" to rename himself the "King." |
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ilovebdt

Joined: 03 Jun 2005 Location: Nr Seoul
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 8:51 pm Post subject: |
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mindmetoo wrote: |
I always say the best thing I can do for Korean kids isn't so much teaching them English but getting them to pick a good Western name that won't make them seem like total dorks when they do their graduate work in the USA. No Oscars, Melvins, Berthas, etc. |
What's wrong with Oscar?
My nephew is called Oscar. |
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ilovebdt

Joined: 03 Jun 2005 Location: Nr Seoul
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 8:55 pm Post subject: Re: hhmmm |
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seoulkitchen wrote: |
noelinkorea wrote: |
....and if students learn German or Japanese or Chinese as well, do they do they call themselves Gertrude, Ryoko and Pingching in addition to English named Mary?
AND...ever notice how many Korean girls (and American Kyopos) are called 'Grace'? Odd... |
When I was studying Japanese and Chinese I got Japanese and Chinese names.
My favorite name one of my students gave himself was 'Impossible *beep*'.
There's even a website for al those Grace's, the Grace Lee Project (gracelee.net) Googling the name Grace Kim is like eating jelly-filled ridicculo, it's a mouthful!
(don't ask me why I know these things...) |
When I learnt French at Secondary school we were all given French names. Mine was Yvette.
Ilovebdt |
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Kyrei

Joined: 22 Jan 2003
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 9:29 pm Post subject: |
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My favourite name of a student was one guy, back oh 10+ years ago, at a hagwon in Kangnam... he wanted me to call him "Frogeyes". He told me himself that the reason why was obvious. He did, in fact, have googley eyes that threatened to pop out of his skull every time he swallowed. I made a point of not ever being in a position to have to call him by name from that point on; I just made eye contact. |
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identity
Joined: 22 Apr 2006
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Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:42 am Post subject: |
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if i could, i'd name one of the girls "cleopatra jones", cuz i'm cool like that. |
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Paji eh Wong

Joined: 03 Jun 2003
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Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:29 pm Post subject: |
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I had a Chewbacca once. And an Ali, Fraser, and Big George (boy/girl twins and a cousin).
Those only lasted until the Korean teacher showed up. |
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Tommy

Joined: 24 Aug 2005
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Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 11:21 am Post subject: |
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A co-worker who happens to love a particular 80's soap, advised the Korean teacher to name all the kids in my one class after this show. I've now got a Blake, Thorne, Brooke, Macy, Carrie, Taylor, Jordan, Tim, and Julie. At first I hated him for doing this 'cause they sounded so cheese.. but now it's more than refreshing after the countless Brian's, Linda's and Sarah's I come across.
The name of the show has escaped me right now, so points to anyone who can name the soap. Not sure if all the names were in the soap but definitely the first four. |
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Natalia
Joined: 10 Mar 2006
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Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 4:24 am Post subject: |
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Oscar is back in fashion as a name in the West.
Last edited by Natalia on Tue May 09, 2006 3:49 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Big T
Joined: 04 Jan 2006
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Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 6:32 am Post subject: football team |
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i recreated an entire first 11 of my local football team in my class!
makes for an inward chuckle or 2 (is this cruel!?!?)
who knows!?! |
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Tiberious aka Sparkles

Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: I'm one cool cat!
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Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 6:58 am Post subject: |
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mindmetoo wrote: |
So, these kids with names like Yum Bum and Hyun Gyun and Buk Yoo are going to go out into the world and get their named butchered mercilessly by stupid Westerners. It's not a bad thing if they have a familiar western name so sales contacts don't go like "Hi yu nah gi un?" "No my name is Hyun Gyun." etc. |
Speaking as a westerner whose name is "butchered" by 95% of fellow westerners who try to read it, the above is silly. You know what I did when teachers couldn't read my name off the register? I explained to them how it is pronounced. Case closed. Should I have changed my name in order to make growing up in western society easier?
Sure, it's not easy for most westerners to pronounce Korean names correctly -- the best example of this being Hyundai, which in the west is pronounced "hun day" -- but it's a two way street.
Let's say for example a guy named Ryan is teaching ESL in Korea. Most Koreans can't pronounce his name properly, and it often sounds as though they are calling him "lion". Should the guy say "eff it, I'm Cheol-Su from now on"? Of course not. He's hopefully empathetic enough to realize that it's sometimes hard to get a person's name right. And who cares, because he knows what they're trying to say, anyway.
(I'm not even going to bother about the western imperialism angle of what you're suggesting.)
Sparkles*_* |
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Pak Yu Man

Joined: 02 Jun 2005 Location: The Ida galaxy
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Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 12:18 am Post subject: |
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Right after Lord of the Rings came out one kid changed his name to Frodo....lol.
All the other boys were green with envy. |
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Buff
Joined: 07 Apr 2004
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Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 2:51 am Post subject: |
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A co-teacher once had students who decided to name themselves Terrorist and Counter-terrorist.
I also had two girls who called themselves Teeny and Weenie. On their evaluations, I wrote Tina and Winnie. So hard to look at a teenage girl and call her Weenie.
Nothing beats the names my students had in Thailand: Milk, Bomb, Fight, Mint, Cheese.... |
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Tiberious aka Sparkles

Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: I'm one cool cat!
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Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 3:30 am Post subject: |
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Buff wrote: |
I also had two girls who called themselves Teeny and Weenie. |
Two girls I used to teach, whose names were next to each other's on the register, were Hop and Skip. No Jump, unfortunately.
Sparkles*_* |
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