So last semester when I got the roster for my class I almost died at the names I was supposed to be able to pronounce. Names are a big deal, no one wants their name to be mispronounced, that's the worst. It took me about two weeks to even have the guts to say some of my student's names because I knew I was going to say them wrong, (I would seriously practice at home) then they would feel bad and come in the next day with their new "American name." For some reason I thought this semester would be better since I've had some practice and all. I was wrong. I just want you to have a little taste of what I mean... can you say these names? Here is one of my class rosters -
Ahn, Hyoyeol
Chae, Eun Kyung
Chung, Byung Kook
Choi, Han Na
Corona, Maria Wow, two easy ones in a row, I can do Maria and Rosanna.
Ferrone, Rosanna
Jung, Eui-yong
Kim, Hyeong-geon
Koo, Jeehye
Lee, HyunJu
Lo, Yueh-Hsun
Oliva, Faundez Carlos
Osipenko, Vasil
Purevtseren, Baatarkhuu
Silva, Sheila
Sim, Sangmoon
Ting, Tzu
Wang, Po-li
Yoon, Seung-hwan
Villa, Celine
Maybe it was unnecessary t0 list the entire class, but are you dying? How in the world do I call on anyone to answer questions?
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7 comments:
CP-
I hear ya, babe. I hear ya. Darn those unpronouncable names! Oh wait. Mine isn't exactly a walk in the park either... Huh.
The Asian names kill me on the first day. I can handle Euro-crazy. But lots of x's totally throws me off...
The joys of Adult Ed.
Lisa P, PLEASE will you join the blog world again. This is painful.
Pierce - I love that you're writing, and commenting, and really getting into this. NICE - it shows what a good friend you are to dive in. I love that you have these awesome names, and the people that go along with them. You are totally the person I would want introducing me to a difficult language in a foreign country. They LOVE you.
(as do I!)
and people think Blaisdell is hard to say?? I love that they pick American Names. It's always so random what they come up with for their cool new names! Love ya!
Lets hear it for weird names. I'll constantly be thanking my mom and dad for making my life quasi-miserable as a kid when it came to trying to find a pencil or hair clip with my name on it. What if they all had "American" names that you assigned on the first day? And you could give them a pencil with their name on it? Yeah - that would be cool. :)
Yikes. I remember when Liz Johnson was teaching and she would say her students names I would think ???? What??? I would just ask them the first day to help you pronounce them and make a cheat sheet to sound them out... rhymes with...
C-R-A-Z-Y!!! I used to be able to think i was pretty good at names, but not when it comes to those names. How is ur pregnancy coming along? My sis in law and I make very cute burp rags and diaper cakes if you, lyndsey, or alisha are interested at all. Miss ya . Carlie- carlies2boyz.blogspot.com
Christy, it looks like you've got a bunch of Koreans in your class! How exciting... tell them all "An yang" when they leave, and they'll love you for it.
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