I have made a good friend with the new owner of the South Bend Food Mart. Paul, originally from South Korea, has lived in the US for 2 decades and graduated from the University of Washington (U Dub) with a degree in Business Administration. While he has a good functional handle on the English language, we've both discovered that he doesn't understand most American sayings and idioms. So, I've become his unofficial English tutor plus I've assisted him with writing some legal documents.
His 22 year old niece is visiting our area for 3 months. Paul has asked me to help her learn more about the English language and we had our first "lesson" today.
The young woman's name is Bome (rhymes with home), but most people around here call her April. Why is it that Americans insist on giving people from foreign lands Americanized names? It smacks of sheer ethnocentrism to me!
When I was in Grad School, I was a TA (Teaching Assistant). I volunteered to be a peer counselor with the many Asian students in our department. All of them had been "given" Americanized names by the professors because, I believe, they were too lazy to try to learn, pronounce and remember their actual names.
One of my buddies in Grad School introduced himself as Frederick (though he constantly tripped over the r sound). I looked at him and said, "Your parents named you Frederick?" "No, no, no," he said. "Frederick is my American name." I soon learned his given name was Gan Lin and that's what I called him.
In fact, in all but one case, I steadfastly refused to use the fake names assigned to each of these students. The only exception was for one young woman's whose Chinese name I continually mangled. By mutual agreement, I just called her Zoe. :-)
My fellow students appreciated the fact that, not only did I call them by their real names, but I showed genuine interest in learning about their lives, family, language, culture and geography. Most of them told me that few of the other American students seemed interested in the least in learning anything about China, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia or wherever else they hailed from.
What a shame!
His 22 year old niece is visiting our area for 3 months. Paul has asked me to help her learn more about the English language and we had our first "lesson" today.
The young woman's name is Bome (rhymes with home), but most people around here call her April. Why is it that Americans insist on giving people from foreign lands Americanized names? It smacks of sheer ethnocentrism to me!
When I was in Grad School, I was a TA (Teaching Assistant). I volunteered to be a peer counselor with the many Asian students in our department. All of them had been "given" Americanized names by the professors because, I believe, they were too lazy to try to learn, pronounce and remember their actual names.
One of my buddies in Grad School introduced himself as Frederick (though he constantly tripped over the r sound). I looked at him and said, "Your parents named you Frederick?" "No, no, no," he said. "Frederick is my American name." I soon learned his given name was Gan Lin and that's what I called him.
In fact, in all but one case, I steadfastly refused to use the fake names assigned to each of these students. The only exception was for one young woman's whose Chinese name I continually mangled. By mutual agreement, I just called her Zoe. :-)
My fellow students appreciated the fact that, not only did I call them by their real names, but I showed genuine interest in learning about their lives, family, language, culture and geography. Most of them told me that few of the other American students seemed interested in the least in learning anything about China, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia or wherever else they hailed from.
What a shame!
i agree! i find it interesting to learn about different cultures and i do my best with foreign names, lol. i wonder if americans living in other countries adopt a japanese name or a cuban name etc... my guess is not
ReplyDeleteIt's times like these I get really disgusted with my own people (Americans). Who do we think we are? Good to know there are at least a few of us as yet uninfected with ignorant, imperialist attitudes. One world rich with vast and varied cultures - beautiful.
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