Every day is a new surprise here, I swear! In preparation for the first week of classes, I had been mentally bracing myself for the daunting job of remembering over 100 Chinese names. As I had my students introduce themselves (I have 4 classes of 30-35 students each), I asked each of them for the name that they wanted me and their classmates to call them. I told them that if they preferred to be called by their Chinese name, then that's what we would use. (Many Chinese students take on English names because it's easier for their teachers to remember them. I told them I didn't want them to accomodate me. As the teacher, it's MY job to remember and call them by their names. Period.) Well, despite my little pep-talk on cultural sensitivity, most of my students still gave their English names...and boy oh boy...
Let's see...I've got girls named Sunny, Windy, Rainy, Sky, Echo, Fire, Morning, and Shine. I have guys who want to be called Panda, Wave, Rock, Plane, BoBo, Thinking, Man, Brain, Jacket, Season, Tomorrow, Lilac (!), and my personal favorite, Banana.
So where on earth did these alter-egos come from? Possibly from previous teachers (with good or not-so-good intentions). Some of the names are a close phonetic representation of their Chinese name (Chen=Jane, Bin=Ben). Some of the names are simply words that represent what's important to them (an engineering student named Structure and a law student named Idyllic). Some of them are just people or characters that they like (like Cinderella and Bruce Lee) And I also hear that they get some of the seemingly nonsense names from online video-games, which are very very popular here.
So here is the Biggest Irony of it all: I write MY name on the board and to my surprise, they all say my last name...perfectly...as it was intended to be pronounced generations ago- "Novitzki" rather than the Americanized "Nowicki" that I've been using my whole life. It floored me. Turns out there's a famous German basketball player named Dirk Nowitzki and these kids LOVE basketball. The last time I was called Jennifer "Novitzki" was by the old nuns in my Polish Catholic high school. Who would have guessed that I'd be called that again by these teenagers in Southern China?! So here's to names that, like language, never seem to sit still.


Jen! I love reading your blog. I am busy busy but not too busy to be thinking about you lots....
love,
Laura
Posted by: Laura | September 20, 2006 at 09:17 PM
Jen,
I guess if they wanted to be intrnationally politically correct it would have been Novitska.
Love
Dad
Posted by: Dad | September 22, 2006 at 05:45 PM
Yeah, I didn't explain the male/female thing to them. Perhaps another day!
Posted by: Jen Nowicki | September 22, 2006 at 06:11 PM
i don't remember any nun calling you that.
i must have been sleeping during that stuff.
i was too busy being called VERMOUTH!
Posted by: Kristin | September 25, 2006 at 06:25 PM
yeah, I guess so. I even remember hearing it over the loudspeaker sometimes.
Posted by: Jen | September 25, 2006 at 11:13 PM
Jen, This is so funny. Let me know if you get a Sponge Bob or Noodle.
Love, Jen M.
Posted by: Jen M. | September 27, 2006 at 08:50 AM
Hey girl,
I heard you had a blog. I hadn't gotten the URL for it but I googled "jen nowicki" and here I am.
Nice way to keep up with everyone. Hope you are having a great time.
Posted by: Lisa | October 04, 2006 at 08:16 PM
Wonderful...I am still trying to explain to KAKA why it may be an issue for her when she goes abroad...
Posted by: Lonnie | October 04, 2006 at 08:38 PM
ah ha! quiero que me nombre ahora sea: hottamale:-) heeheee
Posted by: tessa | October 13, 2006 at 08:48 AM
well it's better than pronouncing the person's name wrong the whole time you are there... i called a kid by the wrong name (pronunciation) the whole year and he never said one word. we even asked him in the begining of the year, "how do you say your name?" and he shrugged at us.
the sad thing was that he did speak englsh, so he knew what we were asking him... but he was asian (cambodian) and deferred to the teacher no matter what.
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