Of Harry Koks and Wee Ginas
Jul 11, 2008 in General
The thing about the Chinese is that we were given pretty canggih names at birth, and unfortunately some of these names can be pretty hard to pronounce. Stuff like Tze Siong or Bee Siang, sometimes to make our non-Chinese friends' lives better, we give ourselves Christian names - to simplify things. These days some people even take up japanese names (Yuki? I met a few Yukis in the last year).
The key word is simplify. For some reason some people like to give themselves something more special - but … I mean, sometimes, 'special' may not be so good lah.
I met someone called Arseanus the other day. No serious. Apparently its supposed to be after the Catholic saint St Arsenius, but this genius decided that he's got to be a little more special, and so he said, 'It Urshaynays…' and I went, 'Huh? How do you spell that.'
'A-R-S-E-A-N-U-S.'
Dude. You stupid or what?
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Speaking of names. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE think before you decide to get all creative, or come up with some name that would set you apart. On my linkedin network, there are six HARRY KOKs. How many Harry Koks are there in your linked in?
And then I heard of this girl who, because she had a very difficult to pronounce Chinese name, came into the office one day telling everyone to call her Gina. Then she went to admin to order a new set of name cards. And when she conveniently decided to take off her given, susah to pronounce Chinese name, and replaced it with Gina. To make it more sophiscated and special, apparently.
The problem is, her surname was Wee. So Gina ended up giving away namecards introducing herself as 'Wee Gina'. So very special, kan?
Man I'm going to have problems thinking of names - Eric's surname is Yeow!