I think I may have mentioned already about Canto speakers
taking on a second English name of their choosing. Many of these names have led
to, quite harsh, mirth on our part – I promise to do a future blog about that.
It turns out that English-speakers should do the same in
reverse.
Claire and I were unilaterally given names by our teacher. Mine
was Ah-Lek. This means something akin to ‘clever’. I was a little uncomfortable
(“Hello, I’m Barry, and you?” “Oh hi, my
name’s brainbox”), but she was persuasive that this was fine.
Imagine my discomfort when I first told this name to a Canto
speaker and they burst out laughing. It was how Claire and I had reacted to a
shop attendant called “Legend”. Was my name equally bad?!
And so, when I received an email from the Consulate asking
for my Chinese name for my business cards…I told them Ah-Lek but, feeling very
disloyal to our teacher, explained how I had cold feet about it.
My new boss outsourced the answer to her Canto-speaking
staff. They had a chat about it, and decided that Ah-Lek was indeed not right.
So now, when I introduce myself in Cantonese, I shall
henceforth be what is phonetically written ‘Bak Kin’. This is as close to
Patrick as they could find, and ‘very auspicious’. The closest translation is,
apparently, ‘strong like the cypress tree’.
Which they assured me was very auspicious. Fingers crossed
when I tell the next Canto stranger this new name, they don’t howl with laughter…
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