Today is my official two-year anniversary here in Korea! Since it's such a big day for me (not really, I'm just using it as motivation) I've decided to write my first official blog revival post today.
The topic that came to mind today is about names. Maybe not the most exciting of subjects but hey, gotta start somewhere.
Three very important names will always remind me of my initial few months in Korea: Sally, Clara, and Mrs. Lee. These are the names of my first three English co-teachers at Changshin Elementary School. Sally was my head co-teacher, and the first of the three that I met. She's a wonderful person who made my transition into Korean school life rather comfortable. Even though she doesn't teach at my school anymore, we still keep in touch and meet a couple of times a year. Sadly, I must admit, even though she's an important person in my life over here... I still can't remember her real name!!! The same can technically be said about Clara, but at least I can remember that her surname is Kim.
Before I go any further, let me give you a quick breakdown of what Korean names are like. For the majority of the Korean population, their names are broken down into three syllables. Each syllable is made up of a collection of Korean characters (letters). For example, my Korean name is Bae (surname) Joon-Min (given name). It's written like this: 배준민 (배=Bae, 준=Joon, 민=Min). At this point you might think remembering Korean names is a lot easier than remembering western names... they're only three syllables!!! My family name alone has that many!!! Not to mention, there aren't any of those pesky middle-names to deal with! Speaking of which, you'd be amazed by how many Koreans have asked me what the purpose of middle names is. I usually just say, "they're a way for parents to yell your name in a more meaningful and angry way". I would say overall the structure of the three-syllable-name makes them somewhat "easier". But obviously, they're still Korean names and we aren't used to hearing them. **Note: Some Korean names are two and sometimes four syllables long. I have a friend at church whose full name is 최고 and a teacher at my school is named 남궁영서. But like I said, the three-syllable thing is the norm.
So going back to my original three co-workers, I can proudly say that I succeeded in remembering one of their full Korean names (the fact that I still work with her is irrelevant). Mrs. Lee, as I call her, is 이혜숙... which is pronounced ee-hey-sook. So why do I call her Mrs. "Lee"? Oddly enough, there are a few Korean names that translate differently than how they're pronounced in Korea. 이 is ee (Lee) and 박 is bak (Park). Lack of matching characters for letters in the English alphabet also changes some names. One of my very close friends is named 유리, which we say "Yuri". However, there's no actual Korean character for the letter 'R', so the correct pronunciation has a cross between an 'L' and an 'R' with a bit of a tongue flick.
Mrs. Lee was the beginning of a rather helpful trend for remembering people's names here. I find it's much easier to remember their family name and use Mr. or Mrs. This led to the name of my second head co-teacher, Mrs. Kim... as well as my current, Mrs. Ju.
But wait a minute... didn't I have two original co-workers named Sally and Clara?!? Don't all Koreans adopt English names??? No, not all. But many of them, especially English teachers, do. Mrs. Kim actually has the name Nancy, but due to a stupid pronunciation error on my part, I simply began referring to her as Mrs. Kim, and still do. Mrs. Ju has the name Gloria, which is actually the name that my predecessor used for her. However, Mrs. Kim knew of my habit of using family names and introduced her to me as Mrs. Ju. I still get confused when I hear people refer to her as Gloria... and even more so when they use her Korean name 선희, which is pronounced just like "Sunny" (which happens to be a common English name amongst Koreans). These days I tend to try and learn full Korean names, as well as their English names to try and avoid confusion.
Many Korean names are relatively easy to remember. As I mentioned before, Yuri is the name of one of my close friends. Youjin (유진) is another friend with an easy name, especially since hers shares the first syllable with 유리. My Korean brother, Jinsung (진성) in my mind has an easy name to remember as well. His name has also proved to be helpful to me since many Korean men have the syllable -sung (성) in their names.
In some cases, people prefer that I use their given name, rather than their surname, because calling them Mrs. or Mr. makes them feel too old. For example, I never call Youjin, "Miss Lee". It would just be awkward. But at the same time, it's inappropriate for me to call some people by their given name due to age difference and the amount of respect the culture demands (that's a whole other topic). Therefore, on occasion, I've been given the honor of naming a few of my Korean friends. My newest co-teacher, 전성하 (Cheon Sung-Ha) is only 30... but since she's married, I would naturally call her Mrs. Cheon. If you were to meet her, you would instantly see the amazingly young personality she has and feel that calling her a Mrs. would be just as inappropriate as calling me a grandfather. So after much consideration and researching English names that start with an 'S' (since her name is Sung-Ha)... I named her Stacy. I'm proud to say that the name has begun to stick and I frequently hear it used by the other English teachers.
Now, lets turn the tables and take a look at what people in Korea call me. First of all, "Kinnunen" is even more difficult for Koreans than it is for many people in the U.S., so my surname is more of a formality than an official name for me over here... it's also a fun activity for my students to try and guess the proper pronunciation and spelling. My middle name is kind of fun for my students since many of them have the English name "Alex", and I even had a 4th grade class last year who called me "Alex Teacher" for a whole semester. But for the most part, people stick with "Mark".... sort of.
As I mentioned earlier, there really is no Korean character for the letter "R". Therefore, my name written in Korean is 마크... pronounced kinda like "ma-keu", which I relate to the sound of someone saying my name and sneezing in the middle. Most of the good English speakers I've met over here are rather good at making the 'R' sound and they succeed in saying my name almost perfectly.
As for my students, I would say the greater majority of them use the Korean-styled pronunciation of my name. I think this is partly because of the two syllables in "teacher", which they pronounce kinda like "tea-cha"... which results in a cute little ring of "mah-keu-tea-cha" (which I've grown quite fond of). In the case of younger students or students who don't know me very well, they get by just referring to me as "teacher" or 선생님 (teacher in Korean). I even use this technique with other teachers whose names I've forgotten or never learned.
There are other areas that I could discuss about name usage, but I feel like I've gone on long enough with this first entry of my "new blog". I hope you enjoyed the read and learned a thing or two about Korean culture.
Stay tuned for more to come! 잘가!!!
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