Chinese people in Ireland

star.chaser · 05-08-2009 03:08PM #1

I've been working and living with Chinese people for the last few years and one thing they all seem to do is ditch their Chinese names and adopt English names to go by. I haven't noticed any other nationality do this and was wondering if anybody Chinese or otherwise can shed a bit of light on why they do this?

Snakeblood · 05-08-2009 03:10PM

star.chaser wrote: »

I've been working and living with Chinese people for the last few years and one thing they all seem to do is ditch their Chinese names and adopt English names to go by. I haven't noticed any other nationality do this and was wondering if anybody Chinese or otherwise can shed a bit of light on why they do this?

A friend of mine anglicised his name because the first time people met him, the conversation would go:

Hi, I'm Rei
Hi Ray
No, Rei
Sorry, Ray
No, Rei
Sorry, Ray
No, Rei
Sorry, Ray
No, Rei
Sorry, Ray
No, Rei
Sorry, Ray
No, Rei
Sorry, Ray
Ray is fine.

helimachoptor · 05-08-2009 03:10PM

Frankly some of their names are impossible to pronounce!

I worked with a guy, he called himself PJ

Degsy · 05-08-2009 03:11PM

Hi My name is Stzu-Fan

Okay,we'll call you Stephen..

dsmythy · 05-08-2009 03:12PM

Some names can be hard to pronounce i guess. I knew one guy called "kin ki" (how it sounded rather than how it's spelled). He just called himself Ken after a while.

jumpguy · 05-08-2009 03:13PM

I'd say it's because their names are
1. Extremely foreign
2. Can be difficult to pronouce

And the last thing they want is some name-induced racism.

biko · 05-08-2009 03:13PM

They don't ditch their name, they just add a name you can understand.

sock puppet · 05-08-2009 03:13PM

I think because a lot of their names are difficult to pronounce. But then my sister-in-law was Chinese and she took an English name despite her name being easy to pronounce. Her Chinese name did sound very babyish though.

Run_to_da_hills · 05-08-2009 03:15PM

Chinese people rarely use mobile phones in Ireland, this is becuse they have a tendancy to wing wong numbers. :P

MagicMarker · 05-08-2009 03:16PM

I just call them Lee.

WindSock · 05-08-2009 03:16PM

I would change my name if I had one of those arseholey long Irish names that are impossible for people who don't know Irish to pronounce and lived in China. It would be too much hassle otherwise.

biko · 05-08-2009 03:17PM

I'm sure they have difficulties with Liam, Siobhan, Ailish too.
Thankfully all Irish respond to "Paddy".

enda1 · 05-08-2009 03:18PM

I knew a guy, can't even remember his real Chinese name, but he called himself Bruce.

Ah, after Bruce Lee me thinks.

"NO, Die Haad Bruce Wee, yippe kayee yippe kayee"

ChocolateSauce · 05-08-2009 03:19PM

I lived with a Rin and with a Xinwan Hu (we called her Jessica).

WindSock · 05-08-2009 03:19PM

My name in Asia is Ju-ree. I like to tell Asians I own a chain of hotels

johnny_knoxvile · 05-08-2009 03:20PM

jumpguy wrote: »

I'd say it's because their names are
1. Extremely foreign
2. Can be difficult to pronouce

And the last thing they want is some name-induced racism.

name induced racism? With irish mothers calling there children Brit-aany and Kristal-meth, surely not?

Dancor · 05-08-2009 03:24PM

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Chinese people rarely use mobile phones in Ireland, this is becuse they have a tendancy to wing wong numbers. :P

ROR!!

I worked with a Chinese lad that named himself ''King'' I reakon he looked up the definition of a King and thought he'd fancy that.

Riamfada · 05-08-2009 03:34PM

I worked with a Swedish girl named "Fanny" once.

Oh my much fun was had made especially more so by the fact that she didnt know the meaning of it. Im suprised I didnt get fired for that. I was the worst retauraunt manager ever no wonder my staff never stayed.

AnonoBoy · 05-08-2009 03:34PM

Really?

Can't say I've noticed any around.

Fugly · 05-08-2009 03:41PM

I used to work for a company, who recruited in poland, when the polish were being processed they were given a list of pre-approved names to choose from. The guy who worked in my dept. had one of these adopted names, but most people just asked his real name as they felt more comfortable addressing him by it, and his real name was very difficult to pronounce!

Snakeblood · 05-08-2009 03:43PM

Fugly wrote: »

I used to work for a company, who recruited in poland, when the polish were being processed they were given a list of pre-approved names to choose from. The guy who worked in my dept. had one of these adopted names, but most people just asked his real name as they felt more comfortable addressing him by it, and his real name was very difficult to pronounce!

“We all gathered in the schoolhouse. We all sat on benches, without a word or a sound for fear of the master. He cast his venomous eyes ever the room and they alighted on me where they stopped. By jove! I did not find his look pleasant while these two eyes were sifting me. After a while he directed a long yellow finger at me and said: “Phwat is yer nam?”

“I did not understand what he said nor any other type of speech which is practised in foreign parts because I had only Gaelic as a mode of expression and as a protection against the difficulties of life. I could only stare at him, dumb with fear. I then saw a great fit of rage come over him and gradually increase exactly like a rain-cloud. I looked around timidly at the other boys. I heard a whisper at my back: Your name he wants!

“My heart leaped with joy at this assistance and I was grateful to him who prompted me. I looked politely at the master and replied to him: Bonaparte, son of Michelangelo, son of Peter, son of Owen, son of Thomas's Sarah, grand-daughter of John's Mary, grand-daughter of James, son of Dermot…

“Before I had uttered or half-uttered my name, a rabid bark issued from the master and he beckoned to me with his finger. By the time I had reached him, he had an oar in his grasp. Anger had come over him in a flood-tide at this stage and he had a businesslike grip of the oar in his two hands. He drew it over his shoulder and brought it down hard upon me with a swish of air, dealing me a destructive blow on the skull. I fainted from that blow but before I became totally unconscious I heard him scream:

Yer nam, said he, is Jams O'Donnell!

star.chaser · 05-08-2009 03:44PM

Grimes wrote: »

I worked with a Swedish girl named "Fanny" once.

Oh my much fun was had made especially more so by the fact that she didnt know the meaning of it. Im suprised I didnt get fired for that. I was the worst retauraunt manager ever no wonder my staff never stayed.

I worked with a French Fanny. The first day I started, i was introduced to her by an Irish Girl as "Franny"

tbh · 05-08-2009 03:52PM

I've an irish name that most people don't know how to spell or pronounce. So whenever i ordering food or whatever, that requires me to leave me name, I just say jim.

Riamfada · 05-08-2009 04:06PM

My first name is English and my second name is Scottish. I remember primary school classes where the teacher would insist on calling me by the Irish translation.

She looked like an epileptic james brown trying to say my name.

_blank_ · 05-08-2009 04:33PM

Grimes wrote: »

My first name is English and my second name is Scottish. I remember primary school classes where the teacher would insist on calling me by the Irish translation.

She looked like an epileptic james brown trying to say my name.

English Scottish is a funny name.

Sasanach Albanach as gaeilge.

senordingdong · 05-08-2009 04:40PM

I train martial arts with some Chinese people.

Ony one retains his Chinese name because, it's fairly easy to pronounce.
One of the lads calls himself Jackie. Bless.

John G · 05-08-2009 04:45PM

I worked for a multinational and we dealt with Chinese a lot. The best was a girl we dealt with called...Fanny Dong...no joke... Seems childish I know but manys the time we phoned Beijing looking for Fanny!

She was a really sweet girl, no one ever had the heart to explain what Fanny meant, not to mind Dong. By the way there was also a Sultan and someone who on giving himself the opportunity of renaming himself in his 20's elected for the name of ...Morris!

PaulieD · 05-08-2009 05:06PM

I worked with a lad called Charlie, who claimed to be Chinese. I knew he was lying, he was really Vietnamese!

Conor108 · 05-08-2009 05:13PM

Ah the Chinese, a great bunch of lads

tolosenc · 05-08-2009 05:22PM

Was in school with a Japanese guy with a really long name. Instead of trying to pronounce it, we just called him Dave. It stuck.

JONJO THE MISER · 05-08-2009 05:35PM

I worked with a Eskimo once, really heard name to pronounce so we called him Chilly:D

Chinese people in Ireland

Comments