tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268789363253190247.post5831481917640148632..comments2023-06-25T18:01:34.208+09:00Comments on Busan Mike / 부산 마이크: Your Name HereMikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15349691823513127693noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268789363253190247.post-83433662133588320252010-10-03T02:09:07.244+09:002010-10-03T02:09:07.244+09:00"I'm in no position to decide on the suit..."I'm in no position to decide on the suitability of a first name."<br /><br />Yeah, that sounds like the position to take... Offend the family and you'll find yourself getting the cold shoulder in every possible way.<br /><br />As far as the military service goes, they'll probably end up transliterating it based on how they read it in English - meaning it would end up in the Korean alphabetical order according to the transliteration. Might want to see where it ends up, not that you'll have to worry about that for awhile...Chris in South Koreahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07114300133329984235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268789363253190247.post-55690824533407468422010-10-02T10:13:52.140+09:002010-10-02T10:13:52.140+09:00Thanks - and yes, it certainly is a minefield. I w...Thanks - and yes, it certainly is a minefield. I was supposed to have a different first name to the one I have, but my father was sent to the office to register my birth and instead of following my mother's orders he returned having named me after himself - which had become something of a family tradition (one I've now broken). At least Western names aren't heavily stooped in superstition in the way Korean names are - so you make a choice and if bad things happen to you afterwards that's just life - not bad naming or Chinese character selection.<br /><br />When my son grows up he'll learn about the story of how he was named, and the other choices we had, and I wonder what he'll make of it all. Will he think other options were better, will he resent the problems his Western surname will bring? I came out of this process thinking there were no easy answers.Mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15349691823513127693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268789363253190247.post-61032742163146121592010-10-02T06:18:40.620+09:002010-10-02T06:18:40.620+09:00My boss's wife once told me the story of how h...My boss's wife once told me the story of how her son was named. He (age 13, been in the US since age 4) was aghast; apparently he had never heard it. His said, incredulous: "you let someone else name me?!" Mom assured him that no, she had been given several choices, and picked the one she liked: Dong-Jun. Since he was the first grandson on his father's side, all his male cousins which followed were also Dong-Something. While I found this limiting for them, my boss's wife was equally appalled at the Western tradition of naming boys after their fathers. One of my co-workers recently had a daughter here in the US; he and his Korean wife named her You-Hwa, a combination of his name (Kang-You) and hers (Myung-Hwa). This break with naming tradition seemed to horrify the other Koreans I work with. Long story short, I can understand your difficulty in trying to adequately represent such diverse cultures ... best of luck to you all.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com