老外崩溃:中国人起的英文名 快把我们吓坏了好吗!
这年头的年轻人,谁没个英文名,仿佛跟时代脱节了似的。要取英文名没人拦着。但是,名字取得太销魂那就尴尬了…… 据说,现在很多小朋友在幼儿园就起好英文名了。更有甚者,还没出生爸妈就给想好了英文名。 虽然是中国人,但英文名的重要性……虽然我也不知道究竟重要在哪,但似乎已经成了“标配”嘛 作为一个没有英文名的异类,每天被Lily, Chloe, James, Linda们包围,感觉十分佛系而超然。 和咱们浩如烟海的中文名相比,可以选择的英文名实在少得可怜。于是,在取英文名的道路上,许多国人通常走向了两条路: 其一,跟随大流,取个简单好念的普通名字。比如咱们在中学英语课本里看到的那群Lucy, Kate, Tom, Jim, 虽然撞名率超高,但不会出啥大错。 其二,剑走偏锋,取个过于有“个性”的名字。比如从词典里翻个正常人绝不会拿来做名字的词,或者干脆自己用几个字母强行创造一个。从此你就是夜空中最亮的星,想让别人不对你刮目相看都难。[doge] 第一种的普通名字就不举例了。 现在呢,咱们来围观下第二种——中国人取的那些分外销魂的“个性”名字。 在Quora(国外版知乎)上,有老外问过这样一个问题…… “你们见过哪些中国人自己取的销魂英文名?不在中国基本看不到的那种!” @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,猜他们取某个英文名字的逻辑在哪,还挺有意思的。就举些我在中国看到的例子吧~ I. Names of Disney Princesses and other fiction characters, just like: 1、迪士尼公主或者其他小说里的角色名,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. 我在学校学普通话时,老师有要我帮她起个英文名。她自己是想叫“灰姑娘”啦。。。我真是用尽全力去和她解释,这名字不是个很好的选择啊! II. Sweeeet adjectives, just like: 2、一些齁甜齁甜的形容词,比如: Honey Sweet Dear Sounds very funny in multicultural English-speaking environment. Like 'honey Honey' or 'dear Dear' 在跨文化的英语环境中,这些名字听起来太搞笑了哈。比如你的名字是“亲爱的”,那么……“啊~亲爱的亲爱的~”? III. Random combinations of some girly words, just like 3、一些词汇的随意拼凑 @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. “停止”杨,“怪兽”黄,“机会”李……这些名字都有点皮啊 [笑而不语] @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. 看着叫“Super” “Prince” “Power”的各位,尴尬简直穿透了屏幕…… @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应该是啥?日语? @Merry Birchfield: I met a man named "Emotion",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. 同学们好啊~你们的老师名叫:Never Wong! 不仅是咱们普通人爱起英文名,一些土生土长的国产品牌,也时兴起个“洋名”,显得自己很时尚。 在这方面,家居、服装行业可谓是一马当先了……是不是用了有“洋名”的瓷砖,我家就可以变成欧洲宫廷风?起一个莫名其妙的英文名,服装就成为国际大牌了? 其实,还真没必要瞧不起中文名字。“六神”在国外还叫“liushen”, 也没有很销魂地翻成“six god”。无论是品牌还是人名,汉字所蕴含的文化底蕴可不是几个拉丁字母能替代的。 说到这里,小编突然想起去年发生的一件事。 据报道称,美国哥伦比亚大学的学生宿舍内,有许多中国留学生的名牌故意被人撕毁。对这些显然不是西方人姓名的亚裔学生的姓名牌下手,很难说不是种族歧视者干的。 面对这样令人愤怒的事,中国学生们采取的反击办法,却令人心生敬意。 他们录了一个小视频,对着镜头大方说出自己的中文名,并向大家解释自己名字的含义…… 相比有些人,中国留学生们的反击真是超有风度了! 有一个印度裔的英国妹纸,看过这个视频后就特别感动,还给我们写了篇文章投稿。 她在文章里说,中国人起名真的非常用心,而西方人更像是在“随便”起名……嗯,有一丢丢羡慕中国小伙伴呢![害羞] 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. 老实说,在看到哥大中国留学生的这个视频之前,我从未去研究过这个名字有什么含义。我甚至还专门打电话问我麻麻了,结果她说她给我起名Sabrina纯粹因为她怀孕时看了某个电视剧,然后那剧里有个人也叫Sabrina……[二哈] 好吧,其实这就是现实情况:和我一样,绝大多数英国人都不会去考虑我们的名字有啥具体含义。 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. 而亚洲人则恰好相反——他们热衷于给孩子起最美好的名字,借由名字寄托自己的期望和祝福。尤其对于中国人而言,名字的重要性不言而喻,即使你有个诸如“李”“王”这类再普通不过的姓,父母也会想办法给你起个超凡脱俗的名。故此,中国人的名字都挺美哒。 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. 不过,很少有中国朋友会和我分享他们名字中的含义,这还真让人有点小伤心。哪怕是初次相识,他们都会直接只说自己的英文名,让我有一种迷之疏离感——我连你的真实姓名都不知道,只知道你一个毫无意义的西方风格的“代号”罢了。 所以,除非你的中文名字实在拗口,老外根本念不出来,否则……似乎也没有必要非起个英文名不可。 相比起那些或滥大街或奇葩的、几个英文字母组成的代号,你独一无二的中文姓名,才是一份只属于你的、最有价值的礼物。
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6年前