Learning Chinese Names
May 4th, 2006 by MarkFor me, the difficulties in learning Chinese have always been due to society more than linguistic details. Nowhere is this clearer than in the issues surrounding learning Chinese names. Learning to recognize names is an important part of learning any language. In many cases, recognizing which words in a sentence are names is the difference between getting the general gist of the sentence or hearing a confusing jumble.
The problem is that many Taiwanese people have a strong tendency not to use their real names with westerners. Many prefer to use “English” names with their co-workers and friends, too. The reasons for doing so are numerous and varied- it’s clear that it isn’t just for the purpose of communicating with non-Chinese speakers, though many will offer up that excuse. I’ve actually encountered office environments in companies that don’t conduct any business in English, but are still filled with employees who go by “English” names at the office. Even a lot of people who don’t do this will use their Chinese name with their friends and family, but use an English one with the westerners they know.
Unfortunately, since I don’t look Taiwanese at all, Taiwanese people are very unlikely to tell me their real names when exchanging introductions with me. A common experience of mine is to know a person only by an “English” name for months, and then to hear other friends referring to his or her real name. I often don’t realize it’s the same person. Some people that do this have said that it’s because “foreigners are bad with Chinese names”. Well, that’s probably true. It sure is hard to get “good with Chinese names” if nobody’s willing to use them with you. I realize that people can call themselves whatever they please, but I do wish people weren’t so into using “English” names. It’s taken me three years of living here to learn as many names as I learned in a year and a half of studying Japanese.
I do have a few strategies for learning names, though.
- When people introduce themselves with English names, always ask what their Chinese names are. Some will refuse to tell you, but others normally go by their real names anyway and will be happy you asked. You never know who might just be trying to help the poor foreigner who doesn’t appear able to remember Chinese names.
- When people do introduce themselves with Chinese names, be very careful to remember them. Write down the pinyin and make sure you know how to address them the next time you see them.
- Read about history, if you can find an easy kid’s book. However much young Taiwanese people may like to identify with English names, you can be sure that textbooks won’t be calling Sun Zhongshan, “Johnson Sun” anytime soon.
- Read about politics. The day Chen Shuibian starts going by “Steven Chen” will be a sad day indeed. Even politicians who do have and use English names are almost never referred to by them in Chinese publications.
- Watch mainland movies. Taiwanese movies and Hong Kong movies seem to be filled with people using English names. The mainland movies I’ve seen haven’t been, so far.
- Keep going to Chinese class. One good thing about the classes and the books at Shida is that we were all given appropriate Chinese names and we had to learn them. The characters in the books we studied all had Chinese names too. It was a good start towards getting familiarized with the most common names.
Note: I put “English” names in quotes above due to the fact that many of the most common “English” names in Taiwan aren’t even English names at all. Yoyo and Coco are two examples that spring to mind, but I’ve also met an Anterny, a San, a Weelial and a host of other people with odd names. Heck, my old dentist went by Decay. If you’re not sure which names are common, I suggest the Name Voyager. It’s got the most convenient interface of any baby name site I’ve seen. You can check the “English” names above on the voyager and see that none were in the top 1000 names in any decade after 1880. If anyone knows of a similar site for Chinese names, please post the link in a comment!
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May 4th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
Your dentist’s name made me laugh. It is worrying that there may be an ambulance driver out there going by the English name “Accident”. Unfortunately a lot of Chinese names aren’t even used by their own family members in public. I guess a name such as “Irene” is more personal than simply jiejie or meimei etc.
I knew my previous boss’s landlord for a couple of years before knowing his name. He always introduced himself as ‘______________’s landlord and when he gave me a contact number he suggested I put “_______’s landlord instead of an English name. I always assumed the reason for not letting you know their actual name was for status type reasons.
I’ve also encountered the Taiwanese non-English speaker with an English name which is often something ridiculous.
May 5th, 2006 at 12:37 am
What’s the difference between someone non-Chinese, non-Taiwanese with a Chinese name and someone non-American with an English name?
Those are some pretty bad English names.
May 5th, 2006 at 1:28 am
That’s interesting, Chris. I’ve thought about the whole issue with status and titles before. It’s probably a contributing factor. Still, the Japanese are even more concerned with titles, and they don’t tend to take English names.
OnTones, the differences are that fewer Americans have Chinese names, and that those who do very rarely refuse to share their English names with Chinese people who come to their country. Many younger Taiwanese people, on the other hand, flat out refuse to use their Chinese names with westerners. I don’t think foreigners in the US have a struggle with learning local names even remotely comparable to that facing foreigners in China.
May 5th, 2006 at 6:08 pm
I want to use my Chinese name in English classes but the problem is none of my teachers can remember my name in the first/two class. Even they do memorize my name but they can’t pronounce it right. I guess that’s why lots of English teachers suggest their students to use a English name in the class, and the students accepted the condition resignedly. So I picked a “market” name, David, as my name in dealing with foreigners. For a while, it has became a conditional reflection. However, when it comes to daily life, I prefer to be called my Chinese name, Han4 Jie2, better though. When the role has switched from teacher-student to friends or even two strangers, it is considered touching or respectful by using one’s given name; especially to those who concerned with titles.
So go for it,learn Chinese names and pay attention to the pronunciation.
May 6th, 2006 at 3:33 pm
I found that when I was living in China I learnt a lot more people’s Chinese names than I ever did in Taiwan. Often it was a case that there was no alternative. It is not common for people to use an “English” name there.
One obstacle for most teachers to learn their students Chinese names is the pinyin problem. Most students would not be able to write down their name in an intelligible system of pinyin. Even if your knowledge of Chinese characters is very good there is also the difficulty of reading hand-written characters.
May 6th, 2006 at 4:40 pm
Hanjie, once I had a student at one of my previous schools who didn’t like using Engilsh names, either. His name was Weilen and he insisted on using his real name in class, no matter what. Since my school had a strict rule that everyone had to use English names, the girls at the desk and the other teachers started calling him William all time. He actually got so upset that he went home, and brought his mom back to yell at them. She threatened to take him out of the school, and they finally relented and let him go by Weilen in class. He’s the only student I’ve ever taught who didn’t take an English name.
Weilen is easier for English speakers to pronounce than Hanjie, though. In general, j, q, x,ü, and “ie” dipthongs are hard for us. If you just went by Han, nobody would have problem
May 6th, 2006 at 4:43 pm
David, do you mean that most students in mainland China can’t romanize their own names? Or is that just a Taiwan problem?
May 7th, 2006 at 10:25 am
Mark, I am referring to Taiwan when I say people can’t romanise their own names. They also have no idea how to write the names of places or streets other than the obvious Taiwan and Taipei. The MoE really needs to figure out that this is a basic literacy requirement!!!!
Also in China I didn’t teach in a school, so perhaps in formal learning situations students there might use “English” names. The non-use of “English” names in China is just my experience in business and social settings.
May 9th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
How is that a basic literacy requirement? That would mean they can’t read unless they know how to read their names. Do you mean write? Because in Taiwan, it’s obvious to Taiwanese how to pronounce most characters they encounter, including names.
Chinese names are hard to learn because 1) it’s tonal 2) there are much fewer canonical names compared to Japanese names or English names.