Shakespeare had it bang to rights when he said that "...a rose by any other name would smell as sweet!", but there is no denying that a pleasing moniker does no harm either.
Since arriving here in 'The Land of the Morning Calm', I have been provided with plenty of food for thought on the topic of names.
Their meanings, the importance of choosing them......how utterly rubbish I am at remembering them....
I have never been very good at remembering names in English and oh Lordy but how that disability was exacerbated when I had to deal with unfamiliar Korean names! In my first few months here, when the Korean language was all shiny, new and unequivocally unfathomable to me, people's names were just a random mouthing of syllables.
Having nothing familiar to 'hang' the memories on, I sometimes achieved levels of amnesia which were practically Zen!
One lovely guy from our Taekwondo class is a prime example. I have asked him his name on three seperate occassions - though admittedly making the mistake of asking him at 3am after several hours drinking and singing with our entire class at a Noraebang (karaoke room)!- and each time it felt as if I had somehow managed to forget his name......BEFORE HE SAID IT!!
To this day I refer to the poor man as Doctor 씨 (Doctor Shee) which is simply calling him 'Mr. Doctor'.
Now, if I was that bad at remembering the names of people I actually socialise with, take a moment to imagine how mindbogglingly useless I must have been at remembering the names of celebrities.
In Korea, every male citizen does two years of military service sometime between the ages of 18 and 30. Over the past few months I have had to bid farewell to three actors as they departed Celeb Land for their two year tour of duty. Their leaving had me seriously miffed.
Perhaps because I would miss their acting talents in the next twentyfour months one might assume? Would I pine for their pretty faces?
......well,....maybe a little.
You have to admit, they are quite pretty!
(Left to Right: Hyun Bin, Kim Jae Wook and Bi)
Actually, I was mostly in a snit because these guys were the first three celebrities whose names I had managed to memorise. I was well disgruntled at having to start all over again with a new batch!
On the bright side, now that I am actively learning to speak Korean and I can comfortably read Hangeul (May King Sejeon's name be praised forever!), the impression of having random syllables spouted at me is fading.
Nowadays, when I am introduced to someone new, as long as I can write their name in hangeul there's a very good chance I'll remember it. And hey, even if I forget it, at least it's written down! ;)
At the top of this post I admitted to being fairly rubbish at remembering names in any language.
As with every rule, there is of course an exception. In my case the exceptions are my delightful kindergarten students.
Who on earth could forget cute little five year olds sporting names like 'Ace', 'Tiger' and 'Speeder'?!
What is even odder than these unusual names is how eerily apropriate some of them are. In three of my classes I have a boy called 'Ace' and in each instance they are indeed ace, i.e: the best. They are my brightest, kindest and funniest students. 'Speeder' is in fact my fastest thinking four year old and 'Felix' does actually lounge across his desk like a somnolent cat!
Then there's my darling girl, Julie, who tries on names the way most of us try on coats. I'm hoping that Julie will stick with her current moniker, as it is a vast improvement on her previous choices, two of which were 'Dill' and 'Pinky'.
The fascinating thing is that as I started writing about my students and reflecting over the past year, I realised that every time Julie chose a new name, it corelated with an increased level of her participation in class. Almost as if the new name was an expression of a more confident persona.
Hmmm, I'll talk this over with Ms. Amused, she is the shrink in the family after all.
Just as some of my students have English names that are a perfect fit, Ms. Amused and I had the wonderful fortune to be given Korean names which are perfect for us.
But that is a story for another post............
(and I'll also tell you why King Sejeon is my new favourite hero!)
My favourite totem pole! Top to bottom: Jays, Ace and Robin.
Robin is every bit as bright and cheeky as his name-sake bird.
Since arriving here in 'The Land of the Morning Calm', I have been provided with plenty of food for thought on the topic of names.
Their meanings, the importance of choosing them......how utterly rubbish I am at remembering them....
I have never been very good at remembering names in English and oh Lordy but how that disability was exacerbated when I had to deal with unfamiliar Korean names! In my first few months here, when the Korean language was all shiny, new and unequivocally unfathomable to me, people's names were just a random mouthing of syllables.
Having nothing familiar to 'hang' the memories on, I sometimes achieved levels of amnesia which were practically Zen!
One lovely guy from our Taekwondo class is a prime example. I have asked him his name on three seperate occassions - though admittedly making the mistake of asking him at 3am after several hours drinking and singing with our entire class at a Noraebang (karaoke room)!- and each time it felt as if I had somehow managed to forget his name......BEFORE HE SAID IT!!
To this day I refer to the poor man as Doctor 씨 (Doctor Shee) which is simply calling him 'Mr. Doctor'.
Now, if I was that bad at remembering the names of people I actually socialise with, take a moment to imagine how mindbogglingly useless I must have been at remembering the names of celebrities.
In Korea, every male citizen does two years of military service sometime between the ages of 18 and 30. Over the past few months I have had to bid farewell to three actors as they departed Celeb Land for their two year tour of duty. Their leaving had me seriously miffed.
Perhaps because I would miss their acting talents in the next twentyfour months one might assume? Would I pine for their pretty faces?
......well,....maybe a little.
You have to admit, they are quite pretty!
(Left to Right: Hyun Bin, Kim Jae Wook and Bi)
Actually, I was mostly in a snit because these guys were the first three celebrities whose names I had managed to memorise. I was well disgruntled at having to start all over again with a new batch!
On the bright side, now that I am actively learning to speak Korean and I can comfortably read Hangeul (May King Sejeon's name be praised forever!), the impression of having random syllables spouted at me is fading.
Nowadays, when I am introduced to someone new, as long as I can write their name in hangeul there's a very good chance I'll remember it. And hey, even if I forget it, at least it's written down! ;)
At the top of this post I admitted to being fairly rubbish at remembering names in any language.
As with every rule, there is of course an exception. In my case the exceptions are my delightful kindergarten students.
Who on earth could forget cute little five year olds sporting names like 'Ace', 'Tiger' and 'Speeder'?!
What is even odder than these unusual names is how eerily apropriate some of them are. In three of my classes I have a boy called 'Ace' and in each instance they are indeed ace, i.e: the best. They are my brightest, kindest and funniest students. 'Speeder' is in fact my fastest thinking four year old and 'Felix' does actually lounge across his desk like a somnolent cat!
Then there's my darling girl, Julie, who tries on names the way most of us try on coats. I'm hoping that Julie will stick with her current moniker, as it is a vast improvement on her previous choices, two of which were 'Dill' and 'Pinky'.
The fascinating thing is that as I started writing about my students and reflecting over the past year, I realised that every time Julie chose a new name, it corelated with an increased level of her participation in class. Almost as if the new name was an expression of a more confident persona.
Hmmm, I'll talk this over with Ms. Amused, she is the shrink in the family after all.
Just as some of my students have English names that are a perfect fit, Ms. Amused and I had the wonderful fortune to be given Korean names which are perfect for us.
But that is a story for another post............
(and I'll also tell you why King Sejeon is my new favourite hero!)
Robin is every bit as bright and cheeky as his name-sake bird.
then yes, I too would probably class him as gay - once I had checked that he wasn't Italian!
And while I'm comfortably mid-rant here, I'm going to go a little deeper and say that my criteria for masculinity has never been based on how a man dresses but on how he behaves.
