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老外崩潰:你們中國人起的英文名,快把我們嚇死了好嗎!
發(fā)布時間:2018-07-10 11:59 點擊:
這年頭的年輕人,誰沒個英文名,仿佛跟時代脫節(jié)了似的。
要取英文名沒人攔著。但是,名字取得太銷魂那就尷尬了……
據說,現在很多小盆友在幼兒園就起好英文名了。更有甚者,還沒出生爸媽就給想好了英文名。
雖然是中國人,但英文名的重要性……雖然我也不知道究竟重要在哪,但似乎已經成了“標配”嘛
作為一個沒有英文名的異類,我每天被Lily, Chloe, James, Linda們包圍,感覺十分佛系而超然。
雖然,看到這種新聞標題時還是會瑟瑟發(fā)抖……
和咱們浩如煙海的中文名相比,可以選擇的英文名實在少得可憐。于是,在取英文名的道路上,許多國人通常走向了兩條路:
其一,跟隨大流,取個簡單好念的普通名字。比如咱們在中學英語課本里看到的那群Lucy, Kate, Tom, Jim, 雖然撞名率超高,但不會出啥大錯。
其二,劍走偏鋒,取個過于有“個性”的名字。比如從詞典里翻個正常人絕不會拿來做名字的詞,或者干脆自己用幾個字母強行創(chuàng)造一個。從此你就是夜空中最亮的星,想讓別人不對你刮目相看都難。
第一種的普通名字就不舉例了。
現在呢,咱們來圍觀下第二種——中國人取的那些分外銷魂的“個性”名字。
老外:你們弄啥嘞?!
在Quora(國外版知乎)上,有老外問過這樣一個問題……
▲“你們見過哪些中國人自己取的銷魂英文名?不在中國基本看不到的那種!”
@Lucy Tokairin:
Well, it's quite interesting to guess a logic behind their choices. There are few examples I actually faced while living in China.
好吧,猜他們取某個英文名字的邏輯在哪,還挺有意思的。就舉些我在中國看到的例子吧~
I. Names of Disney Princesses and other fiction characters, just like:
1、迪士尼公主或者其他小說里的角色名,比如:
Cinderella
Rapunzel
Snow White
Daenerys
When I was studying Mandarin at language school my teacher asked my help to pick up an English name for herself. She wanted to named herself Cinderella. I did my best to explain her that her first choice is not the best.
我在學校學普通話時,老師有要我?guī)退饌英文名。她自己是想叫“灰姑娘”啦。。。我真是用盡全力去和她解釋,這名字不是個很好的選擇!
II. Sweeeet adjectives, just like:
2、一些齁甜齁甜的形容詞,比如:
Honey
Sweet
Dear
Sounds very funny in multicultural English-speaking environment. Like 'honey Honey' or 'dear Dear'
在跨文化的英語環(huán)境中,這些名字聽起來太搞笑了哈。比如你的名字是“親愛的”,那么……“啊~親愛的親愛的~”?
III. Random combinations of some girly words, just like
3、一些女性化詞匯的隨意拼湊,比如:
Angelababy (!!!)
OMG, Angelababy! She is well-known celebrity here, so pretty, how come nobody stopped her from taking such a ridiculous name?
我滴神!Angelababy!好吧……她在中國這么有名,顏值又高,怎么取了個這么荒謬的名字都沒人攔一攔?!
@Gaurav Kumar:
On my last business trip to China,
I was greeted in office by Stop Yang,
I noticed chinese guys are not huge in build, but the guy sitting next to me had a huge build, his name was Monster Huang.
During my stay, the company organized ping pong tournament.
I play ping pong occasionally, so i participated in it.
My first match was up against Chance Lee, By chance, i won that game.
兄dei,你最后一句話有點皮啊
@George Godula:
Some of my contacts include:
Cleverpig Liu
Nazgul Zhu
Super Zhang
Prince Zhang
Leader Zhang
Magic Cheng
Einstein Wang
Fancy Fan
Pansy Zhou
Burberry Gu
Kosher Liang
Alien Gao
Nimbus Yang
Power Li
and of course a lot of Apples, Lemons, Cherry's, Waters, etc.
看著叫“Super” “Prince” “Power”的各位,尷尬簡直穿透了屏幕……
@Elliott Chen:
I taught English in china for two years. The best I encountered:
Lolita - young girl
Various fruit: Apple, Orange, Papaya
Boss - nine year old boy
Yuki (ain't even English)
……所以Yuki應該是啥?日語?
@Merry Birchfield:
I met a man named "Emotion", another named himself "Hitler", a woman named herself after her favourite thing in the world, "Money." I kid you not.
@ Gabriel Chan:
Hello student: your tutor is Never Wong.
同學們好啊~你們的老師名叫:Never Wong!
不過,最高能的還要算這個……
@Paul Denlinger:
I knew a pair of programmers who did pair programming whose names wereShit and Fuck. These were names, not handles. As in "I'm Shit, and he's Fuck"They were REALLY good!
我知道有倆程序員,分別叫Shit和Fuck. 這倆真的是名字!沒經過加工處理!感受下這個畫風:“我是Shit, 他是Fuck~”是不是超級棒!
Among more acceptable names, my favorite was a network admin named Benjamin Franklin.
至于更能接受一點的名字……嗯,有個網管的英文名我很喜歡,他叫本杰明•富蘭克林。
撲面而來的尷尬
不僅是咱們普通人愛起英文名,一些土生土長的國產品牌,也時興起個“洋名”,顯得自己很時尚。
在這方面,家居行業(yè)可謂是一馬當先了……
……是不是用了有“洋名”的瓷磚,我家就可以變成歐洲宮廷風?
再來看看意大利高級時裝品牌Valentino的中國親戚們……
來,見見Valentino的中國親戚們
他們的名字是:
“華倫天奴•清麗” “華倫天奴•紅玉”
(中意混血)
“華倫天奴•古奇”、“紀梵希•華倫天奴”
(奢侈品混血)
“圣•華倫天奴”
(圣羅蘭:“???”)
“華倫天奴•英超”
(老板是球迷)
“華倫天奴•GV”
(什么意思??)
根據研究者的統(tǒng)計,華倫天奴從進駐中國被仿冒到現在,已有三四十年的歷史了。華倫天奴的中國山寨親戚們多才多藝,不只是做成衣和皮具,所到之處簡直是遍布了全國各個行業(yè)——
比如這位和路易威登雜交之后的華倫天奴瓷磚……一不小心就成為了佛山家具行業(yè)的領軍人物……
華倫天奴好像有一種神秘的魔力。無論什么產業(yè)、什么品牌,無論是大企業(yè)還是地攤貨,只要在“華倫天奴”上加上前綴或者后綴,都能在本土市場里闖出一片天……
▲國產土鱉品牌,咱能不起英文名嗎?(via YangFanJame)
其實,還真沒必要瞧不起中文名字。“六神”在國外還叫“liushen”, 也沒有很銷魂地翻成“six god”。無論是品牌還是人名,漢字所蘊含的文化底蘊可不是幾個拉丁字母能替代的。
說到這里,主頁君突然想起去年發(fā)生的一件事。
據報道稱,美國哥倫比亞大學的學生宿舍內,有許多中國留學生的名牌故意被人撕毀。對這些顯然不是西方人姓名的亞裔學生的姓名牌下手,很難說不是種族歧視者干的。
面對這樣令人憤怒的事,中國學生們采取的反擊辦法,卻令人心生敬意。
他們錄了一個小視頻,對著鏡頭大方說出自己的中文名,并向大家解釋自己名字的含義……
相比起心胸狹窄的種族主義者,中國留學生們的反擊真是超有風度了!
有一個印度裔的英國妹紙,看過這個視頻后就特別感動,還給我們寫了篇文章投稿。
她在文章里說,中國人起名真的非常用心,而西方人更像是在“隨便”起名……嗯,有一丟丟羨慕中國小伙伴呢!
I myself am named Sabrina and, prior to hearing this news, have never even bothered to research its meaning. I just phoned my mom; she admitted that she chose my name based on a TV character she was watching while pregnant. That fits perfectly in line with the vast majority of my fellow Britons who rarely bother to concern ourselves with the meaning of our given names.
我叫Sabrina. 老實說,在看到哥大中國留學生的這個視頻之前,我從未去研究過這個名字有什么含義。我甚至還專門打電話問我麻麻了,結果她說她給我起名Sabrina純粹因為她懷孕時看了某個電視劇,然后那劇里有個人也叫Sabrina……
好吧,其實這就是現實情況:和我一樣,絕大多數英國人都不會去考慮我們的名字有啥具體含義。
Conversely, Asians are profoundly obsessed with the names they bestow unto their offspring. Chinese in particular place great importance in names, often connecting an unusual character for their son's or daughter's given name to an otherwise common surname (e.g. Li or Wang) to create a wholly unique identity. As a result, their names can be very beautiful.
而亞洲人則恰好相反——他們熱衷于給孩子起最美好的名字,借由名字寄托自己的期望和祝福。尤其對于中國人而言,名字的重要性不言而喻,即使你有個諸如“李”“王”這類再普通不過的姓,父母也會想辦法給你起個超凡脫俗的名。故此,中國人的名字都挺美噠。
Sadly, I do not know, have never been told and/or cannot understand the names of most of my Chinese friends. They all swiftly resorted to telling me their English name upon our first introduction, which now makes me question whether I even know them at all since they are hiding behind a superficial facade of utterly meaningless Westernism.
不過,很少有中國朋友會和我分享他們名字中的含義,這還真讓人有點小傷心。哪怕是初次相識,他們都會直接只說自己的英文名,讓我有一種迷之疏離感——我連你的真實姓名都不知道,只知道你一個毫無意義的西方風格的“代號”罷了。
▲Understanding Chinese names can help us understand China (via Global Times)
所以,主頁君覺得,除非你的中文名字實在拗口,老外根本念不出來,否則……似乎也沒有必要非起個英文名不可。
相比起那些或濫大街或奇葩的、幾個拉丁字母組成的代號,你獨一無二的中文姓名,才是一份只屬于你的、最有價值的禮物。❤
(圖via電視劇《天龍八部》)
你有英文名嗎?是什么時候、誰給你起的?你喜歡這個名字嗎?歡迎留言分享討論!