Jan 21, 2009

Korean Gertrude = ?


(I only include Ms. Winehouse because I think she is everything that is ugly.)
Today I had an activity that necessitated creating a name for a speaking character. I figured why not, and I asked my class to give me really ugly Korean name. Of course almost all Korean names start with a family name (usually Park, Lee, Chung, or Cho) followed by two one-syllable names that essentially comprise the first name. For example, here are some of the names of Koreans I've befriended: Cho Eun Jung, Choi Won Seock, Park Hyun Ji, Lee Sun Jung, Kim Hyun Yun. To the uninitiated westerner these names might sound, gulp, similar or confusing at the least. Needless to say I was curious what kind of horror these kids would pull out of the maze of vowels that make up Korean names.

After some deliberation, the biggest personalities in the class, and therefore the conductors, decided on a name: Meng gu. I didn't think it was so bad. I've certainly heard Korean names more distasteful to my western auditory pallet. But sure enough everyone in the class agreed that this was a name of serious ill repute. So there you have it world. And to all the Meng gu's out there, I guess I'm really sorry. Your parents are just assholes.

No comments:

Post a Comment