Comments on: Beauty Pageant Registration

By: artkho

artkho

My colleagues in Tianjin all use English names. It makes it easier for their non-Chinese colleagues to remember. I was surprised to learn that a number of Tianjin colleagues don't call each other by Chinese names and don't even know each other's Chinese names. Each time I work with Tianjin colleagues I've never worked with before, I always ask them to write down their Chinese names. Then I give them my Chinese name. The ensuing interaction is always fun because they tell me the meaning of their Chinese names.

By: artkho

artkho

I posted this in a previous lesson, but for those unfamiliar with this video, http://www.danwei.org/danwei_tv/sexy_beijing_chinese_peoples_e.php, it is funny and interesting.

By: venker31

venker31

speaking of jiajia being a chinese major...请问大家告诉我一些现在时代的中国作者... 我最近很喜欢看东亚的书, 可是我平常看日本的书 (HARUKI MURAKAMI是我最喜欢的)... 谢谢大家

By: goulnik

goulnik

those Western names don't even seem to bear any resemblance with the original Chinese names, often sound like they're straight out of (American)-TV series. I know a 伊琳 (Yīlín) called Jessie, not sure why she didn't choose Eileen!

By: yunmei

yunmei

Chinese names are really beautiful and so interesting. A name is also part of who you are. I hope that this practice of using English names comes to an end soon.

By: luobinzhenmei

luobinzhenmei

Why are the females in the dialogues so often catty? What does that say about what the authors think about women? Well, at least they aren't sending out 忍者 to take care of 佳佳。 Or is that the next lesson?

By: darylk

darylk

Well-pitched and well-taught lesson. Challenging but not impossibly so. I hope that JiaJia wins the contest but dropping in some classical, learned references into her blog. However, I worry that Jessica and Monica are the type to hire Ninjas to elminate the competition!

By: simongrant

simongrant

Agree with Darylk - quite a demanding lesson - must go back several times to take full advantage. Expansion lessons quite difficult too. But all worthwhile.

By: shanyisheng

shanyisheng

Good leson; its my first intermediate, a lot of work, but I doooooo like it. Dank jullie wel Jenny en John 山医生荷兰

By: John

John

luobinzhenmei, If the females ever seem catty, it's done in the interest of drama. We're not misogynists over here, trust us!

By: nicolebrewer

nicolebrewer

Yummei, I totally understand what your saying here.

Traditionally, and generally, I have been a long time advocate of keeping Chinese names. However, I'm starting to realize it's not always good for everyone.

If Chinese people have the kind of name which has many different meanings depending on the tone then hearing Westerners slaughter it in millions of way could be aggravating. I wonder if it's common that names could have a positive and a negative meaning if the tones were flipped....I don't know much about names.

But recently I met someone who is going to study soon in the United States. He has enough background knowledge in English to make it. But I am concerned because his name might sound extra odd in English. I don't want to compromise his identity...so I'll just hint that his name has the sounds: wang pu ci in it...For the first time in my life I'm suggesting the dude take on a new name...It feels wrong...

:) What would you do?