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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(shí)間:2018-07-10 11:59 點(diǎn)擊:
這年頭的年輕人,誰(shuí)沒(méi)個(gè)英文名,仿佛跟時(shí)代脫節了似的。
要取英文名沒(méi)人攔著(zhù)。但是,名字取得太銷(xiāo)魂那就尷尬了……
據說(shuō),現在很多小盆友在幼兒園就起好英文名了。更有甚者,還沒(méi)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(jīng)成了“標配”嘛
作為一個(gè)沒(méi)有英文名的異類(lèi),我每天被Lily, Chloe, James, Linda們包圍,感覺(jué)十分佛系而超然。
雖然,看到這種新聞標題時(shí)還是會(huì )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(shí)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(gè)簡(jiǎn)單好念的普通名字。比如咱們在中學(xué)英語(yǔ)課本里看到的那群Lucy, Kate, Tom, Jim, 雖然撞名率超高,但不會(huì )出啥大錯。
其二,劍走偏鋒,取個(gè)過(guò)于有“個(gè)性”的名字。比如從詞典里翻個(gè)正常人絕不會(huì )拿來(lái)做名字的詞,或者干脆自己用幾個(gè)字母強行創(chuàng )造一個(gè)。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(lái)圍觀(guān)下第二種——中國人取的那些分外銷(xiāo)魂的“個(gè)性”名字。
老外:你們弄啥嘞?!
在Quora(國外版知乎)上,有老外問(wèn)過(guò)這樣一個(gè)問(wèn)題……
▲“你們見(jiàn)過(guò)哪些中國人自己取的銷(xiāo)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(gè)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(shuō)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(xué)校學(xué)普通話(huà)時(shí),老師有要我幫她起個(gè)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?zhuān)@名字不是個(gè)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(yǔ)環(huán)境中,這些名字聽(tīng)起來(lái)太搞笑了哈。比如你的名字是“親愛(ài)的”,那么……“啊~親愛(ài)的親愛(ài)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(gè)這么荒謬的名字都沒(méi)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(huà)有點(diǎn)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(zhù)叫“Super” “Prince” “Power”的各位,尷尬簡(jiǎn)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(yǔ)?
@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(xué)們好啊~你們的老師名叫:Never Wong!
不過(guò),最高能的還要算這個(gè)……
@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(méi)經(jīng)過(guò)加工處理!感受下這個(gè)畫(huà)風(fēng):“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(diǎn)的名字……嗯,有個(gè)網(wǎng)管的英文名我很喜歡,他叫本杰明•富蘭克林。
撲面而來(lái)的尷尬
不僅是咱們普通人愛(ài)起英文名,一些土生土長(cháng)的國產(chǎn)品牌,也時(shí)興起個(gè)“洋名”,顯得自己很時(shí)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(fēng)?
再來(lái)看看意大利高級時(shí)裝品牌Valentino的中國親戚們……
來(lái),見(jiàn)見(jiàn)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??)
根據研究者的統計,華倫天奴從進(jìn)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(jiǎn)直是遍布了全國各個(gè)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(lǐng)軍人物……
華倫天奴好像有一種神秘的魔力。無(wú)論什么產(chǎn)業(yè)、什么品牌,無(wú)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(chǎng)里闖出一片天……
▲國產(chǎn)土鱉品牌,咱能不起英文名嗎?(via YangFanJame)
其實(shí),還真沒(méi)必要瞧不起中文名字。“六神”在國外還叫“liushen”, 也沒(méi)有很銷(xiāo)魂地翻成“six god”。無(wú)論是品牌還是人名,漢字所蘊含的文化底蘊可不是幾個(gè)拉丁字母能替代的。
說(shuō)到這里,主頁(yè)君突然想起去年發(fā)生的一件事。
據報道稱(chēng),美國哥倫比亞大學(xué)的學(xué)生宿舍內,有許多中國留學(xué)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(xué)生的姓名牌下手,很難說(shuō)不是種族歧視者干的。
面對這樣令人憤怒的事,中國學(xué)生們采取的反擊辦法,卻令人心生敬意。
他們錄了一個(gè)小視頻,對著(zhù)鏡頭大方說(shuō)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(xué)生們的反擊真是超有風(fēng)度了!
有一個(gè)印度裔的英國妹紙,看過(guò)這個(gè)視頻后就特別感動(dòng),還給我們寫(xiě)了篇文章投稿。
她在文章里說(shuō),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(shí)說(shuō),在看到哥大中國留學(xué)生的這個(gè)視頻之前,我從未去研究過(guò)這個(gè)名字有什么含義。我甚至還專(zhuān)門(mén)打電話(huà)問(wèn)我麻麻了,結果她說(shuō)她給我起名Sabrina純粹因為她懷孕時(shí)看了某個(gè)電視劇,然后那劇里有個(gè)人也叫Sabrina……
好吧,其實(shí)這就是現實(shí)情況:和我一樣,絕大多數英國人都不會(huì )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(gè)諸如“李”“王”這類(lèi)再普通不過(guò)的姓,父母也會(huì )想辦法給你起個(gè)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(guò),很少有中國朋友會(huì )和我分享他們名字中的含義,這還真讓人有點(diǎn)小傷心。哪怕是初次相識,他們都會(huì )直接只說(shuō)自己的英文名,讓我有一種迷之疏離感——我連你的真實(shí)姓名都不知道,只知道你一個(gè)毫無(wú)意義的西方風(fēng)格的“代號”罷了。
▲Understanding Chinese names can help us understand China (via Global Times)
所以,主頁(yè)君覺(jué)得,除非你的中文名字實(shí)在拗口,老外根本念不出來(lái),否則……似乎也沒(méi)有必要非起個(gè)英文名不可。
相比起那些或濫大街或奇葩的、幾個(gè)拉丁字母組成的代號,你獨一無(wú)二的中文姓名,才是一份只屬于你的、最有價(jià)值的禮物。❤
(圖via電視劇《天龍八部》)
你有英文名嗎?是什么時(shí)候、誰(shuí)給你起的?你喜歡這個(gè)名字嗎?歡迎留言分享討論!