| I admit I am a Chinese having a not frequently used English name.
I started to use the name "Robin" in my first English class in the senior middle school, when the English teacher, not a foreigner, asked all of us about our English names. From then on, we never used Chinese names in the English class. In my point of view, an English name for a Chinese, is just something interesting, and it could help in some ways. For example, the English teacher mentioned above had an English name, Shirley. So, we never called her "*** Lao Shi"(for those who do not understand Chinese: "Lao Shi" is the pinyin for "teacher", and it can be used as a salutation in Chinese), instead, we just called her Shirley, which, I think, brought her and us closer to some degree. However, when asked about the name by others in real life, including foreigners, I never gave them the name "Robin". The ironical thing is that, we usually call each other among Chinese groupmates, who used to be in the same group during an English bridging course, by English names. We do not mean to do like that. However, in most of those cases, the reason is that we use the English names so often that we can not recall their Chinese names but the English ones. I like my Chinese name - "Zai Ming", and luckily, it is not difficult for foreigners to pronounce, so it is not necessary for me to give out my English name. Actually, I use it more as a back-up and a nickname with some close friends in real life and foreign friends met on line. |
Why I Don't Have an English Name