David Eldredge
Sep 2, 2018 · 2 min read

I teach Chinese children everyday. Many have chosen their own English names…. I think some of them think they are choosing a name that will fit well in the western world but do not, or they stick with a Chinese name that is impossible to say. Today I had a new student, he gave himself the name of “Fish” I tried to explain, well that is not too uncommon for a last name, but I am not sure about a first name, do you mind if I call you Mr. Fish? He is only 11 years old, he was a bit offended and wanted to be called Fish. Ok, so it is. I had a girl who thought Victor was a good name, short for Victoria. Well, I tried to be gentle and explain, that Victor is virtually always a boys name, but if you feel strongly about it, then I am happy to call you Victor. She quickly and sheepishly asked me to give her a good girls name, so I proposed my to favorite, Aubrey and Stephanie. She choose Stephanie. I had a boy today, who insisted his name, written Hans, is pronounced with the same vowel sound as in hands. I just tried to help him understand, that most all new westerners you meet are going to want to call you Hans, as in the same value sound as dawn. It is not a problem, if they are purely confident in how they want to be called, but I do feel a bit of an obligation to let them know what it may be like looking at it from a westerner’s view. Some of the other names that come to my mind right off the bat is, Dragon, Swan, Harden, Cherry as in the cherry tree, Tendo as in Nintendo, Yogi, Lami, Yoyo, Wiwi (Wewe), Roaming, Lemon, Daming and there are more, but for the most part, 99% of my students have very common western names, some too common, Jim, Luke, John, Peter etc.

    David Eldredge

    Written by

    Teach English via BOXFiSH; play and teach piano, own and operate naltic.com and citlan.org