Names will never hurt me
Ah, I think I must have left my muse in Kunming or something. That, or I'm watching too much TV, which of course strangles the imagination. Anyway, I have nothing to write save for a little comment on names. Back in September, I wrote about Yau Neih starting classes and bestowing English names on most of her students. I was a bit uneasy with it, I recall. I said something like:...when I think about the whole naming process, I'm of two minds. On one hand, it seems a tad degrading to have to surrender one's name to the conventions of a college program. Especially since the name is handed out by a teacher who may have just met you. On the other hand, I can see how it might be fun to get into the whole course of study and establish oneself with another identity.Well, just today Yau Neih tried to liven up a boring exercise for the class. Instead of just having students diagram the sentence, or whatever they did, she would have someone come up to the board, do the task, and then pick someone else to do the next one. She said that they could use their fellow students' English names or real ones. Surprisingly, most everyone used the English monikers. This prompted Yau Neih to ask them about how often they used their English names with one another. Quite a lot apparently. They mentioned using them in conversation and even when cheering each other on in basketball games. While it's not a universal practice--there was one time when I was socializing with the faculty here and they didn't even know each others' English names--it was a bit surprising that those names picked up off a xeroxed list would take root like they did. It's almost scary, what affect the teacher's actions will have on their students. I'm kind of glad it's her and not me doing the job. Then again, I suppose it's nice to have a legacy....
posted by John @ 6:47 AM
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