The Next Generation of English names for Chinese Students

Kim and I have over 1150 students between the two of us.

Yeah, you read that right. Next time you complain about a "large" class of 30, remember our classes are usually 44-50 or more students. So, in addition to the challenge this poses to encouraging participation in practicing spoken English in the classroom, we were presented with the unique quest of giving many, many, many English names. If we didn't give them, we wrote ideas for names down and let them pick. If they chose their own, they pulled from (what little / what common) American pop culture has arrived in China (for most students, that amounts to "Titanic" and Michael Jackson) or pulled from old text book names. Some students created their own names. At least, I think they did. I certainly have never heard or seen some of these "names" before. All said, I really love the names they come up with / are given. And so do they, so it works well!

So, due to Kim's and my geekiness, there is now a fairly large population of Chinese students with names taken from the following:

1. Star Trek: The Next Generation (In one class, Will and Riker are two students, haha)

2. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

3. Buffy, the Vampire Slayer (Buffy is in one of my English classes, where I also taught them what "vampire" and "slayer" means)

4. My family (I have two Nancy's in one class, and about 5 more in other classes)

5. Kim's family (There are many Susan's, Carol's, a Melissa, and even a Robert)

6. Book and Music Exchange Employees (I am working on trying to get the entire staff from my time working there in one class. But, my average number of guys in each class is ..... 1-2)

7. Kim's high school class.

8. Friends of ours.

Crap, I just realized I could have pulled from the Dragonlance books, and had some Tanis Half-Elvens and Tasselhoffs running around. Bummer.

Some of our favorite names include, but are not limited to:

Pandora, Buffy, Qamra, Soap, America, Apple, China, Basil, Boy (a girl), Egg, CC, Gram, Rainy & Sunny (two deskmates in one of Kim's classes), Coco & Cola (best friends, in one of my classes), Yolanda (the student chose this name on their own), King, Wondering, and Nguib.

Least favorite names:

Sunny, Happy, Smile, Lahasia, Haley, Hailey, Harley, Ann, Anne, Annie, Anna.

So, with so many students, it is very tricky to remember their names. The "Do you remember who I am?" question felt embarrassing the first 20 times. Now, when I see students on campus, if I don't remember their names I open with, "What's your English name?", usually followed by, "What class of mine are you in?" -- and yes, I ended that sentence with a preposition. Blam.

We remember some students immediately, especially those who make themselves known (for good or for bad).

Coffee & Cigarettes

And no, I don't really like Jim Jarmusch's films. "Coffee & Cigarettes" was watchable, mainly because of Rza, Gza, and Bill Murray.


Anyway.


We are busy.


Well, we aren't just busy. We are slammed. Our teaching schedule really began Oct.9th, after the National Holiday break, and since then we have been more active in our work, daily life, and social life than we were in America -- by a large margin.


But, I want to talk about coffee.


Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee. Coffee kicks tea's ass. Don't get me wrong. I like tea. I enjoy a good cup of tea. I probably enjoy bad cups of tea. But I love to drink my coffee. And this city does NOT have coffee. Not even a Starbucks. The closest they come to coffee here is instant coffee in small packets that taste like sugar and hot water with brown food coloring, or ordering a coffee milk tea, which tastes like sugar, hot milk, and brown food coloring.


So, we brought some coffee with us -- maybe about half a pound of beans. We also brought a manual coffee bean grinder, that Kim's Dad gave us. We blew through that half pound in about a week, then had no coffee for around 2 weeks, until our emergency airdrop arrived, bringing us a fresh pound of coffee (thanks to Kim's family -- our second emergency airdrop arrived shortly after, with FIVE more pounds of fresh beans, courtesy of my Mom and Bob. GO GO GOOD GUYS!)


Those two weeks were hellish. We found ourselves wandering aimlessly, zombies in a strange land, searching everywhere for coffee. Then, one day -- SALVATION!! We spotted a sign sporting the words DIO COFFEE, and we raced inside with our bags of household items that we just purchased at the (over-priced) supermarket next door. The second we stepped inside, we knew we had made a vital mistake. We were smack in the middle of a middle-class Chinese coffee-restaurant-place. Their middle-class establishments tend to look more like our upper class, so don't picture a Starbucks-type atmosphere. Picture Jack Fry's-type atmosphere. We looked like ragamuffins, but we were desperate, and figured it couldn't hurt to look at the menu and order a coffee.


It did hurt. It hurt about. . . 78 元 worth. Two coffee drinks, roughly $12. I have never spent that much on 1 regular (about 8 oz) coffee, and a fancy mocha/ice-cream drink (Kim's order). Kim's drink was very good, mine was better than Speedway coffee, but they cost an insane amount of money. Starbucks would be envious. 


However, we could smoke inside the restaurant/coffeehouse/upscale-lounge place. So that was really nice. Smokes here are cheaper than the US, running around 7元 ($1 and a few pennies) for a pack of the brand that Kim and I both enjoy, but it is still essentially throwing money away, since there is no benefit to smoking. For the longest (read: 4 months) time, I was a devout 红双喜 (Double Happiness) smoker, but we tried 红塔山 (Red Pagoda Mountain), and they are a little lighter and smoother, and now they are our brand of choice.


Smoking on this campus makes us both very self-conscious. Nationwide, 54% of Chinese males smoke. So, not a big deal for me to smoke -- smoking doesn't make me stand out more than, say, being extremely white American does. However, this campus is composed of over 90% women. Nationwide, the numbers of female smokers in China hangs down around 2%-3%. So, a little strange for me to be smoking. However, Kim smoking is a entirely different. It really is foreign for her to smoke. China, like America, is doing a great job with anti-smoking campaigns, and young people here seem to have gotten the message, and generally don't smoke.


I ran into on of my students on the way home from eating out one night, and he was eating dinner with his parents. He introduced me to them, and we exchanged some Chinese and English pleasantries. His Dad very smoothly offered me a 红双喜 during our chat, lighting it for me. There was a pregnant pause as I inhaled, and relief as I explained how happy I was to have a 红双喜 cigarette again. Everyone was 很高兴 (happy).


Well, now we have coffee, and smokes. Life is great, we are enjoying a lot of the simple pleasures of teaching along with facing some of the difficulties. For now, I think I need a smoke and cup o' coffee.