No more "Christian name, sir?" in Kent, UK

[Judy Prince]

So *Ni* (pronounced "knee") represents your surname Need, and *Ba*
represents your first name, Barbara.  Pretty neat!

My Chinese professor at U of Michigan did as your teacher did.  Thereafter
unable to shake the beauty of spoken and written Chinese, I've had many
years with many Chinese tutors, each of whom has given me a Chinese name.
 My favourite for its beautiful look and sound was the first:  Pei [2nd
tone] Yu [4th tone] Hwei [4th tone].  *Pei* (pronounced "pay", represents
the first letter of my surname Prince, and the other two names are very rare
classical Chinese words for "fragrant" and "bud").

With my last Chicago tutor I decided to give myself a Chinese name, "An
Dao", meaning "Peace Way".  He laughed and refused to allow it, saying that
two-word names were only for men.  My tutor here in Norfolk named me
"Laughing *Pei*" (I've actually forgotten the other 2 Chinese words!).

BTW, why was Chinese a "funny language requirement"?

Best,

An Dao

On 29 March 2010 22:46, Barbara Need <bhneed at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Barbara Need <bhneed at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: No more "Christian name, sir?" in Kent, UK
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It goes the other way as well. When I studied Chinese for my funny
> language requirement at UChicago, my teacher named Ni3 Ba4 (I think I
> have the tones right). I don't remember the character for my personal
> name, but the family name character has three ears. Other students
> also had Chinese names that were clearly based on the sounds of their
> own names.
>
> Barbara Need
> Chicago
>
> (I wonder what my nephew's Chinese teacher named him!)
>
>
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