Day 2: The Power of Names

We began the day today by doing a mini-workshop on names. We wrote out our names on large pieces of draft paper and discussed how we felt about our names, the stories behind our names, and the challenges we may or may not have felt our names presented us in our lives.

When living in a growing bilingual country, you notice how much or little emphasis is put on names. In China, many people have both Chinese names and English names. This is an expanding trend which is grounded in popularity, love for Western culture, and as well a desire to make it easier for foreigners to remember their names -- or so I've heard from my Chinese classmates. For the most part, though, an English name is just a nickname. When the Chinese students in my class had to really connect with a name, they went back to their Chinese name.

Going through the stories of many of the Chinese names, it struck me how many of them have a background in beauty. Many of the women are named 'Beautiful Sunset', or 'Beautiful Country', when translated. There is a passionate nationalism infused in several of the names I came across today, as well. While some may see this as a negative, I find it very fascinating that humans have created such a strong connection to their own country through the power of a name.

The power of a name. Names are powerful, when you get right down to it. My name is Charlene -- but throughout my entire life, every person who has held any kind of position in my life has always called me Charlie. That's who I consider myself as. Charlie. When you call me Charlene, it makes me feel very formal -- I straighten my shoulders and sit right, prepared to be called upon to speak. Two names with two very different personalities. That's the power to my name.

When a child first enters your classroom, it is essential to help them to remember their name. They need to know who they are in order to begin creating their personality and learning about themselves within your classroom. If they don't know their name, they can too easily lose themselves in the distractions. It is the first step, then, to play name games, hand out name cards, and exercise the power of a name with the children in your classroom.

Marlene asked a very interesting question to the students at the end of this discussion, which I am still puzzling over at this moment. Often, children come into our classes, and they have three different sets of names -- Their Chinese name might be Wang Jia Yi, but their nickname might be Jia Jia, and their English name might be Jackie. So what should you call them? If you had to make a school policy, which name would you make children use in the classroom? Their Chinese name? Their English name? Their nickname? Why? 


I'm still not sure. I'm under the belief that children should know their whole name, as that's the family name given to you -- but sometimes children identify more with nicknames as they are easier for all to pronounce. Any thoughts? Would love to hear feedback on this subject.

Until the next time...