When a Buddhist child is born, the parents consult a monk, who reads various star alignments, etc. and picks the perfect name for the child. The parents, at the same time, then give the child a nickname, like "Sue," "Jom," "Not," or "Guitar." Yes, I had a boy in class today named Guitar. I also had one named "Milk" and rumor has it there is a "Pizza" running around school somewhere.
Now, let me just say, thank the lord for this tradition of giving kids nicknames, because their real Buddhist names are unbelievably difficult to understand and just about impossible to say correctly. On the flip side, they can hardly pronounce our names, especially Rob's (R's are really difficult for them). I have changed my name from Steph to Stef on the board now, because "ph" is pronounced like "p" in "pop". To the entire second grade class, I am now "Step," probably permanently.
Getting the kids to spell out their names in English on namecards we made was hilarious. I'm going to try to write something in Thai on the next entry if I can figure out how, but their alphabet has 44 letters, and they aren't characters like in Chinese, but they're close in that they're very squiggly, and most of them look like "n's" or "u's" with various embellishments. So it was totally a loose translation when we tried to help them figure out how to spell their names. A girl whose name was pronounced "sigh" spelled it "sane."
Getting the kids to spell these names was a constant challenge for the past 3 days, as we taught new classes and took up a good twenty minutes each time. When I was praising one of the three-year-olds pictures, then, and she wanted to sign it and give it to me, I braced myself for the inevitable communication struggle sure to follow. This one time, though, I was given a reprieve. She was known only as M.
Now, let me just say, thank the lord for this tradition of giving kids nicknames, because their real Buddhist names are unbelievably difficult to understand and just about impossible to say correctly. On the flip side, they can hardly pronounce our names, especially Rob's (R's are really difficult for them). I have changed my name from Steph to Stef on the board now, because "ph" is pronounced like "p" in "pop". To the entire second grade class, I am now "Step," probably permanently.
Getting the kids to spell out their names in English on namecards we made was hilarious. I'm going to try to write something in Thai on the next entry if I can figure out how, but their alphabet has 44 letters, and they aren't characters like in Chinese, but they're close in that they're very squiggly, and most of them look like "n's" or "u's" with various embellishments. So it was totally a loose translation when we tried to help them figure out how to spell their names. A girl whose name was pronounced "sigh" spelled it "sane."
Getting the kids to spell these names was a constant challenge for the past 3 days, as we taught new classes and took up a good twenty minutes each time. When I was praising one of the three-year-olds pictures, then, and she wanted to sign it and give it to me, I braced myself for the inevitable communication struggle sure to follow. This one time, though, I was given a reprieve. She was known only as M.
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