Friday, March 25, 2011

God and Demon fighting in Class

In Chinese culture, names have direct meaning.  For example,  one student's name is "A Jade in the Rough" (璞玉) or "Great Sea".  Parents select these names for the character their want their children to have.  Also, some consult Feng Shui experts to help pick the luckiest names; one student has changed his name 4 times in his 18 year life because his parents said this name is better than the last one.  Imagine that; imagine your classmate is John, but returns the next year as Robert.  Two years later he becomes Patrick, etc. 

Well, the students are used to this "a name needs a meaning" culture, and they adopt it in their English names.  While culture is great, it presents some really interesting situations in a classroom.  My 10th graders have pretty normal names, because I gave them a sheet with 200 recommendations (the most common 200 in the US), so most stuck to the sensible names. 

But my 11th and 12th graders totally have some weird names.  Some 11th graders are called Candy, Black, Beryl, Fish, Haseck, Jet, Only, Pansy, Violent, Toy, Cat, Doomsday, Swave (not Suave, nope), Sky, Sunday, Icy, and Monkey.  The seniors are just as bad.  There's Dily, Bright, Sagittarius, Soldier, Demon, Turkey, Cloud, Lucky, Orange, Swallow, Shine, Buick, Matter, Shady, Windy, Captain, Rainbow, Sky, and God.  I'm not even kidding.  I'm reading this directly from the attendance chart!  Some of the names one could get by with without there being a connotation, but, really, Pansy, Demon, God, Buick?

What are you supposed to do if "god" is misbehaving?  Can you call him out saying "God, sit down." "No, God, you're wrong."  Plus, how does one avoid discussing religion when they pick names like that or God and Demon are at each other's throats?  (Hypothetical, fortunately; never happened to me)

Plus, those who have more normal English names regularly ask, "What does my name mean?"  How can I tell them, we don't really pick names based on meaning in English.  One really smart girl keeps asking and her name is Sherry.  I don't want her to actually know what Sherry is.  Being as superstitious as most Chinese are, I fear if I tell her that her name is a type of alcohol, she'll call the Feng Shui doc and return next year instead as "Mother Theresa."

Later Days,
Rick

1 comment:

Rrrussian Experience said...

love it rick! must be superinteresting:)