Naming My Students

My first day of teaching brought some interesting challenges, but the most striking experience for me, was that several of my students did not have "English names". All but two of my students had previously taken ESL courses, and had chosen English names for themselves (or had been given English names by their parents) in addition to their Chinese name.

 

When you have a baby, it is a seriously huge responsibility to choose your child's name. It could be the reason they get made fun of for the rest of their life. The spelling you choose could ensure that teacher's (especially supply teachers) pronounce it incorrectly when they take the attendance. It could get rhymed with other (unflattering) words. It could get shortened to a weird nickname. You can see what I'm getting at....

 

Chinese parents must have carefully chosen their children's Chinese names, but they are willing to let ESL teachers the world over choose one at random for their child.

 

And I wholeheartedly wish it was possible for these students to use their Chinese names in the ESL classroom - it is identity-affirming for students to use/hear their own names. I would be deeply disappointed if I came to China and had to assume a new name. I love my name.

 

The problem is that I cannot pronounce a single one of my students' Chinese names. It would take me several weeks of constant practice to get the sounds right, and more time than that to feel confident saying them on a regular basis.

 

So I helped two students choose their English names - one was fairly certain he wanted to be called "Kevin", and it suits him, so that was easy enough. The other had a name that sounded to me like "Jiong Shaou" (hopefully), so I suggested all the J names I could think of: Jake (okay, this one was in honour of my dad), Josh, Justin, Jordan, and James (I already had a "Jimmy" in my class).

 

He chose Justin.

So now his name is Justin.

Because I suggested it.

 

What if I had started listing names that started with any letter? What if he one day comes to North America and decides he hates the name Justin? It is too much responsibility for some strange Canadian girl teaching someone's son for three weeks.

 

But it was kind of fun...... and I would do it again if I had the opportunity!