Subtlety in Self-naming 101
What is it with Asians giving themselves western names at the workplace? I work with Tommies, Jacks, Johns,etc., on a daily basis, yet these are all assumed names. More often than not, these are names that corporate English teachers or clients (that can’t pronounce native Japanese/Chinese names) have bestowed upon those in question.
Today, the G-man informed me of the best one we have heard to date. One of his wcorrespondents has dubbed himself Great Wang.
No shit, that’s what the guy calls himself; it’s even in the first part of his email address.
I don’t even know where to start analyzing something like this.
– I need one of this guy’s business cards. Just to be able to show it around.
– Will his assistants be known as Lesser Wangs?
– Anybody confident enough to wear Great Wang t-shirts? Tattoos?
4 Comments
NuggetMaven
This post reminded me of a guy I used to date many moons ago… many moons being 21 years.
His last name was Biggar.
I used to tease him and say his brother was “a little biggar.”
Needless to say, he didn’t laugh.
sumiyoshipilgrim
Haha. That reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Martin the school geek wears the WANG computers t-shirt on the school bus. Damn I miss the Simpsons over here in Korea. Is it on in Japan?
Justin
Simpsons is shown on sat tv here. It’s funny hearing Bart’s dubbed voice in Japanese.
Architeuthis
The Japanese do it, so do the Koreans – to a lesser degree. The question is, when they go to – say, Germany or Italy or even Russia. Do they name themselves Helmut? Giuseppe? or, Igor? The Japanese guys in Brazil are Jose Fujiyama and the like. But I’ve not heard of a Helmut Yamamoto – or a Giuseppe Yamaguchi. Or better yet, Kenya. Which would be – Nkebe Fujimoto. Woah.