| Agree. I dont have english name 'coz I'm not born with that name. Lots of my friends have English names picked by themselves, without knowing the meaning of it. Some keep changing their English names as they keep on finding more "sophisticated" ones. Why do I never see an Indian or middle-eastern or South American or Thai or Japanese people using English names? The only Asians with English names are commonly Hongkongnese or Malay-Chinese, who legally have both Chinese and English names on their passports. One of my friend is called Alex Kee Kon Koh (Chinese-Malay) because that's his proper name. I understand that some Chinese names are hard to pronounce, but what about Thai names? Thai names are long and difficult to pronounce, but I never know any Thai who choose an English name for themselves. If your Chinese name is REALLY REALLY hard to pronounce, then maybe adopt an alternative name that's similar to your original (one of my Thai friend shortened his first name to Pooh, although sometimes it sounds like Poo, does it matter?) I know another Chinese guy whose name is Xi. His western friends call him "Zee" as they don't know how to pronounce Xi. He prefers it because Xi sounds like She in English. But he never uses English names. Another example, a Chinese lady I know is called Dan which is a common Chinese female's name, but in English it's a guy's name. Anyway, these guys never tried to "make things easier" with a made-up English name. I used to have an English name in school (to make English classes "easier"). One of my English friend said to me: your name is chosen specially by your parents, it's you and your culture. I won't use your English name because it's not you. I agreed with her, and since 17 I never used my English name ever, despite the fact I had to spell out my name thousands of times to people, and correct their pronounciations thousands of times...We should be proud to teach the westerners a bit of Chinese... |
Why I Don't Have an English Name