So we have been here for a week and everything has been amazing. We are getting to know the place, the people, and even beginning to speak Chinese in everyday life. Of course the reason we are here is to do one thing: teach. I have 8 classes a week to teach that range from Oral English to Basic Writing to Newspaper Reading.
The classes are various sizes and various skill levels, but one thing is the same. In every class there are some great names. In China when a student studies English they get an English Name. Sometimes the students pick a name that sounds similar to their own name. (For instance Sun Yi might picks Sunny.) Sometimes a teacher assigns a name, and sometimes students pick their own.
Of course they don’t necessarily pick an English name. The pick an English word and use it as a name. There are plenty of regular English names (In one class I have Alice I and Alice II) but what I really like are the different ones. I have students with the names of:
- Kaka
- Rainy
- Hera
- Grape
- Windy
- Ice
- Free
- Darlin
- Winds
- Fairy
- Echo
- Prosper
- Shun
I cannot tell you how fun it is to stand up in front of a class and ask Hera a question, or make Darlin read something out loud. It makes my name seem positively boring.
But Ryan has the real winner. He has a trio in one of his classes with the name of Walter, Bobo and Cookies. I don’t know, something about that really cracks me up.
Some teachers are upset by non-traditional names and make the students change them. But we live our lives with names that we never chose, so when it is time to chose a foreign name, I say why not choose what you want?
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