I have posted several times about how I generally encourage my students to use their Chinese names instead of ones they have invented ( They would be perfect for gay porn stars, but…CHINGLISH) or have had foisted on them like poor old Dick Dong from Beijing. Yesterday, I had all the students teach me their first names first and last names last in contradiction to Asian style. I predicated the exercise with a rousing speech on being proud of one’s heritage and honoring historical roots and all that… All the students had great fun stumbling through a surprisingly hard exercise. One boy in particular was reluctant to sound out his name in reverse. I thought this was just routine Asian student reluctance, so I pushed him into sharing. He began with To (pronounced Toe) and ended hesitated a long time before finishing with Fu. Tofu. It took ten minutes to get the class back under control. The Chinese have a proverb that goes: It is better to do without books than believe everything they say. Um, the same now goes for teachers…. Only two days left to vote for your favorite blog in the Bloggies: HERE….
Lonnie Hodge onemanbandwidth.com
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