What's in a name?
Last week I took the unprecedented step of announcing the existence of this blog to a number of friends, family and casual acquaintances. (Before I had only announced it to total strangers.)(I know, it's weird. Welcome to the world of blogging.) Now, on the off chance that one or two of you have bothered to check out the blog, I suppose I should explain the nicknames... if I can.
Y'all know me as John. A nice name. One that served my father so well that he gave it to me also. However, through a complicated process I won't delve into here, I ended up traipsing around the web--message boards, blog comments, et al--under a variety of pseudonyms. I even got into the habit of referring to family and friends by nicknames. (Part of that was paranoia about some unscrupulous fellow garnering info on my loved ones off the web. I tend to vacillate between feeling totally hidden in my obscurity and feeling totally exposed to the world.) Anyway, when I started this blog, I first thought to adopt new screen names to go with this brave, new endeavor. (My eldest, Ga Dai, didn't like her old nickname anyway.) So in keeping with the vaguely Chinese theme of the blog, I decided to use the Chinese names given us by a dear friend. Problem was, there's the Cantonese pronunciation (and spelling) of each name, and the Mandarin one. Which to use? The Cantonese, which was the language in which the names were bestowed? Or the Mandarin, which we will probably be using if we share those names in China?
After precious little deliberation, I decided to go for the Cantonese, since I think I have the proper spelling--well, it's called romanization, actually--somewhere around here. Until I find that little slip of paper, I'll just wing it. So if you see Yuek Hahn, that's me. Yau Neih's the wife. Ga Dai is the eldest child and Siu Wan is the younger. And the Sauerkrauts
is the organization under whose auspices we are making this venture. (I know, I really don't need to give them a nickname, but I called 'em the Sauerkrauts once before and I kind of like it.) (If the next post is titled "You're Fired", you'll know that they didn't like it.) More nicknames will undoubtedly follow.
Then again, John is a pretty nondescript screen name.....
posted by John @ 12:25 AM
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