Corrupting the minds of youth...

[Technocrat]

Changing your name from Korean to an english one is not the same as having a nickname. It doesn't derive from the same needs  and certainly does not have the same impact.

It's not like we're changing their names, just giving them extra ones! Ones that may roll off the tongue more easily when they eventually get to the stage of interacting with the Western world at large.

Fun!  When I taught in South Korea we did, indeed, have several Jennifers in each class.  That seemed to be incredibly popular.  I divided them up into Jens, Jennys, and Jennifers.  One class had so many I had to call one of them "Nif."  Not as popular as Jennifer but still pretty popular was Sarah, Mike, and Steve.  Some of the names baffled me.  There was one kid who called himself Shrek, another who called himself Ghost.  No Race Car though.  That would have been awesome.

One of kindergarten Jennies decided to sort the situation by designating numbers as well. She promptly made herself Jenny 7 - none of the other Jennies cooperated with this though, but now she signs all of her work as "Jenny 7"

[monkey0506]

I was once (when I worked for T-Mobile) bumped down to the designation of "Mike #2" due to missing a day of training (for a funeral!!). I don't go by "Mike"..but it was sorta whatever.

I later gained the title of "Supa [(Super)] Mike" when I threw down a dope flow in the middle of our ages of downtime..he never saw that one comin.

[Barricus]

My parents called me "Tiger" for the first 2 weeks after I was born.  Have you tried Dweezil, Moon Unit, Ahmet, or Diva?  Try titles that describe them as well.  Prince, Duke, Earl, Duchess all sound a little strange, but you said they loved the royalty angle, so why not nobility in general.  I, being American, would name some of them after awesome Presidents, like Teddy Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson.  Teddy Roosevelt was the first Westerner to get what would now be a third degree black belt in Judo, so it's got the East meets West thing going on.  Plus, he was so awesome, that when he was giving a speech  and was shot in the chest by an assassin, he finished the speech before getting medical attention. The bullet had passed through his glasses case and his folded up speech, which was 50 pages, before entering his chest. Being an avid hunter and a former soldier, he knew since he wasn't coughing blood, it wasn't a life threatening injury, he then read his entire speech, bullet hole and all for 90 minutes. His opening line was,"Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose." He never had the bullet removed, since it was three inches into his chest muscle and right next to his heart. When he finally died in his sleep years later, a fellow politician said this of Roosevelt,"Death had to take him sleeping, for if Roosevelt had been awake there would have been a fight."  Andrew Jackson was an angry, angry man.  He fought in anywhere from 8 to 200 duels, depending on how reliable the information was.  He also was shot at while giving a speech.  However, his would be assassin's gun failed.  So, did the back up gun.  This gave Jackson enough time to find the man and proceed to beat the man senseless with his hickory cane.  The Secret Service had to protect the gunman from Jackson, pulling the President off of his attacker. 

[Ryan Timothy B]

I later gained the title of "Supa [(Super)] Mike" when I threw down a dope flow in the middle of our ages of downtime..he never saw that one comin.

Ok, I live in a small town (not to mention in Canada), but what the hell is "throwing down a dope flow"? lmao

But sometimes nicknames are taken to the point where people's original names are never used anymore, how is this different?

It's worse when the nickname is something odd like Beef. I actually knew lots of people that had a nickname that were completely different from their own name and words instead of actual names.

I think it's a little weird to see a bunch of immigrants that barely speak the language having strong American names like Frank and such.

But I do understand it though. I worked with MANY Pakistan immigrants and I had a very hard time understanding how to pronounce and remember their names. This one old man actually said (in as little words as possible) "Just call me Bubba" instead of me forgetting his foreign name, which I can't remember. I believe he told me Bubba (however it was spelled) actually meant Old Man. So I felt it definitely suited him.

[Ponch]

Barricus: Teddy Roosevelt was the most manly man in the history of manliness. My chest got a little hairier just reading your post.

Technocrat: Jenny 7? That sounds very "Logan's Run", which is to say that it sounds amazingly awesome.

Gabriel_Down: What's wrong with Asians using western names? I've known a bunch that have done it. It certainly didn't hurt Jackie Chan, right? (And I think it was an Australian that gave him that name. Probably Ben006 or one of the earlier models, I suspect). And when I was in Japan, everyone called me by my nickname almost exclusively. I never had a problem with it. (And besides, most of them mispronounced my real name anyway).

[monkey0506]

I later gained the title of "Supa [(Super)] Mike" when I threw down a dope flow in the middle of our ages of downtime..he never saw that one comin.

Ok, I live in a small town (not to mention in Canada), but what the hell is "throwing down a dope flow"? lmao

Man, let me find out you don't know nothin' about freestylin..

Haha..oh my..I work around far too many black people.

Wait, that's not racist! ..coz it wasn't meant in a derogatory fashion..

Actually, one of my coworkers and I had a short little freestyle rap competition back then..which is what I was referring to.

[Barricus]

Barricus: Teddy Roosevelt was the most manly man in the history of manliness. My chest got a little hairier just reading your post.

He also liked to box Champion heavyweight fighters, even when he was president.  So you might have gotten an invitation to the White House for dinner, light conversation, and some punching the President in the face.

[Babar]

I dunno...if I am in a situation where I have to interact with a "differently-named" someone on a regular basis (has happened often enough), I generally do my best to remember their name rather than designing weird nicknames or alternate names for them.

Perhaps it is a culture thing or something, but I find it a bit sad that koreans think they need a "western name" to fit in better in the wider western world.

[kaputtnik]

But even "western" people do this, when moving from one country to another. I am pretty lucky, my name (Sebastian) works just like a native name in English, French and Spanish, and in most other languages it can be pronounced easily. Other German names don't work at all in foreign languages, so lots of people I know simply adopt an equivalent of their German name while they are abroad. I have yet to meet the Spanish person who can pronounce the name "Stefan", for example. All Stefans I ever knew magically turned "Estebans" in Spain.

Still, I don't know if giving English names to Korean kids isn't cultural imperialism in a way. I guess we should ask somebody with two names if he perceives it like that.

[tzachs]

I dunno...if I am in a situation where I have to interact with a "differently-named" someone on a regular basis (has happened often enough), I generally do my best to remember their name rather than designing weird nicknames or alternate names for them.

Perhaps it is a culture thing or something, but I find it a bit sad that koreans think they need a "western name" to fit in better in the wider western world.

Since most of the world population can't pronounce my name properly, I normally introduce myself as Zac, which is the english equivalent of Tzach.
When people, like Babar, insist and try to say my real name (and they usually do actually), it gets pretty embarrassing (at least for me), when they fail miserably, so I kinda understand the need for english names, it prevents that awkwardness...

And in unrelated news, two thumbs up for Racing Cow's slightly hairier chest! 

[InCreator]

I find this thread awful.

Personally,
If someone's too retarded or lazy to learn my name and decides to call me "Mike" or whatever crap, I'd issue a very physical lesson instantly

[Babar]

I'd still do it, tzachs. Because I love you. And embarrassment is good for the blood.

But I would keep asking until I got it (acceptably) right.

I dunno...I don't think that different ethnicities have some racial tongue restrictions that they can't pronounce names from a different culture.
I admit, I'm a bit anal when it comes to names, which might be considered a bit silly, since they're usually arbitrarily assigned without any consent from the recipient, but there it is. I generally dislike name-distorting nicknames, and try going for the original whenever possible.

When bici was showing me around Milan, he pointed out that at one point (the fascists?) the govt italianified all names, even if they were from another, unitalian country. It was hilariously silly to see (I think it was) Giorgio Byron Street.

PS: Considering the way you are spelling it, you're probably still mispronouncing his nickname, Ryan. It generally goes like "Baba" (as in Baba black sheep) rather than bubba, although they're probably similar enough to not notice.

[Ponch]

So you might have gotten an invitation to the White House for dinner, light conversation, and some punching the President in the face.

Best. President. EVER.

Also, thanks Tzachs! The best part is, I got it just in time for Christmas! Now I can hang little decorations in it. Maybe put up a small string of lights...


EDIT: And also this...


Vroom vroom!

[Technocrat]

I find this thread awful.

Personally,
If someone's too retarded or lazy to learn my name and decides to call me "Mike" or whatever crap, I'd issue a very physical lesson instantly

I think there's probably a cultural difference involved, partly. After all, I've learned my director's Korean name, but every time I tried calling him "Lee Seung Min", or even just "Mr Lee" he insists on "Brian" instead. If they introduce themselves as "Kim Jeung Hyo", then I will call them that. If they refer to themselves as "Andromeda" around me, then I shall keep calling them that (or I get a clonk round the head, since it's my girlfriend's English moniker)

It's not just in Korea too, but the Hong Kong folk I know seem to do it differently. A lot of the ones I know give their kids Chinese names that sound a lot like English ones - Wai Him (William). Wing Shing (Winston), and then they went by the English names at school in the UK.

[Gabriel_Down]

But sometimes nicknames are taken to the point where people's original names are never used anymore, how is this different? I had a friend at school named Craig that everybody called Frankie - friends, teachers, family. He referred to himself as Frankie almost all the time. One day he rang me up and said "Hey Ben, it's Craig" and I spent about 10 minutes thinking "Wait, I don't even know anybody called Craig!" before I recognized his voice and realized it was Frankie. Whose name is/isn't Craig.

I don't see how this is different to being in possession of both an English and Korean name. Heck, if someone gave me a name from their own language, I'd gladly call it my own when dealing with them. I understand the reason for division on the issue, but still don't see it as a problem, just a peculiarity.

In other news, the strangest first name I have ever come across was the name "Goondy". Yes, his parents called him that.

And Karl Malone was known as the mailman, but this has nothing to do with what I said, pretty much like your response.

Nicknames are fun because your friends (or yourself) pick one for you and it has a certain significance. It might remind you of an event, a trait you have etc etc. In that sense it means way more than the name you have in your ID. It defines you more or less (usually less but still)

On the other hand what technocrat told us about Koreans is something, in my opinion, completely different. It shows a certain attitude in South Korea, that it would be easier to be happy/wealthy/succesful/whatever if you can be more "Western". Not only that, but also that Korean names are WAY too difficult to be remember. A little child learns that in order to be remembered by the world he has to change his name. That is what I find sad. Wouldn't be much better if instead of this the child was taught that he will be remembered if he changed the world? And I don't blame so much the parents (although they do have their share of the responsibility) but the arrogance of the so called western world. We still remain retain the attitude of the british when visiting one of their colonies.

For fuck's sake look at the dutch people. We can remember Anneke Van Giersbergen, I think we can handle Park Ji Sung. Why don't do dutch change their names? Way more difficult than korean names. They don't change it because they have pride and they're not poor. Because they don't get treated like they're 3rd world. If you believe this is just something "by itself" and will have no impact on their culture or their psychology then you're right to find it cute. I believe on the contrary that the cultural imperialism of the US and Europe is crushing their pride, their culture and possiby their future. And anyway I also believe that evolution comes through diversity, not through another 10.000 John Smiths


Anyway I hope I didn't come as a aggresive to you or technocrat, it was not my intention honestly. Just expanding on my first post because you asked "how is it different"

Cheers!

PS: I don't have anything against americans either, in fact I believe they're one of the most modest and relatively tolerant empires.

[ThreeOhFour]

Fair enough, although I would point out that a child naming himself "Racing Car" is either extremely well concealed rebellion at a surprisingly young age or a kid having a bit of fun. Clearly he feels that the name is more inspiring than that which his parents gave him.

If I appear to be a bit relaxed with regards to the issue, it's probably because I think there are a lot worse things that could influence a child's upbringing than having an additional name, and that are a lot more common throughout the world. You've made your point clear enough, and I still can't help but chuckle at the child who names himself "Racing Car"