Meghan은 간다, Meghan ya no esta aqui

Names

Maybe I have written about this before, but I'm not sure. It's quite customary now for Koreans to choose an English name for themselves. Whether they are businessmen who do international business, or children in English academies, a lot of people give themselves English names. Sometimes, in the children's cases, someone chooses the name for them (such as the teacher), or they pick names they know from celebrities or from books they've read.

Most of my elementary age students come to class with an English name. Either they've been in our academy the previous semester and it's already in the computer system, or they come to class and say they have an English name. This is true for most of my elementary students. However, a lot of my middle school students opt for their real Korean name.

I can't say I blame them. When I go to Mexico, my pastor there jokes and calls me Margarita, which is the closest Spanish name to Meghan. Honestly, I don't like it. My name's not Margarita, and I am not used to responding to it. I like my name. So, sometimes I feel bad that these kids have to be called by their English names.

So, if a new student comes, and they want to be called by their Korean name, I let them. I romanize it so that I can read it and remember it by it's English letters, but it is still their name. Sometimes, when a class is beginning its semester, I have a hard time keeping the names straight.

I had quite the problem with my current middle school class at the beginning of the semester, though I think I have it figured out now. I have HyungJune, JooHyun, YoungHyun, which I got all confused the first few days. There are more names to be confused, but those are the three that sound so much alike. I have to try to sit them in three different rows. But, things are okay now.

In other news, one of my students somehow got named Cruise. I've heard stories of English academy teachers getting ridiculous and naming their students after a string of celebrities (Brad, Angelina, Britney), sports stars (Jordan, Shaq, Beckham), or even just plain old funny English words like Robot. Good grief. Talk about stupid.

posted by Meghan @ 6:23 AM