Welcome to Ray’s English Corner

it’s been a while since I’ve done a video completely in English

but this topic in particular today, I feel like

it’s meant to be discussed in English and I’m talking about English names

Now first off, it is already pretty weird that every single person here in Taiwan

is kind of required to have an English name

I mean really, every single person that I know in my life has an English name

What’s most interesting to me is how people got their English names

So, taking me as an example, I just so happen to have the character 瑞 in my Chinese name

so I go by the English name, Ray, R-A-Y. Reasonable, right?

But for most people their names just don’t make any sense, it has nothing to do with their Chinese name

and some just got randomly assigned a name by their English teacher perhaps?

And that stuck for the rest of their lives

Come to think of it this is giving so much power to the English teachers

If in your classroom you don’t like a particular student

you can just name him Dick and ruin the rest of his life for him

As it stands, everyone here has their own English names

and I actually kind of, personally prefer it this way

just because of how English names are so much easier to spell out compared to Chinese names

Don’t know what I’m talking about?

Well this is usually what goes down when people ask me to write their names for them

Ray can you sign for me?

Yeah, sure, what’s your name?

I-Ting

Which “I” and which “Ting”?

(Describes Chinese character by positioning each parts)

......

Do you have an English name?

Oh, oh yeah, Cindy!

Oh! Cindy! Okay, good, Cindy~

But sometimes in Taiwan, you meet people with really, really strange English names

I think everywhere in the world, there’s gonna be weird names

but in Taiwan we have a particular style of English names weirdness

So in the States you can be creative and spell a name backwards and create another name off that

for example Nevaeh is heaven spelled backwards, and that’s pretty cool

But a problem with that

you start questioning regular names and start spelling them backwards and they’re ruined

For example, Natasha is Ah Satan

And here in Taiwan people can get really creative as well with their English names

In my past experience dealing with strange, weird English names here in Taiwan

I usually come across really literal sayings, you know

things that are not supposed to be names, but they’re used as an English name

For example, true story here

I’ve known people who call themselves “Steak”, “Purple”, “Diploma”

Wait...but why?

Usually they’ll go something like, “Oh I enjoy steaks, I like the color purple”

No. No, you don’t. No. Shut up. Go kill yourself. Don’t get that name

Now, I would like to think that I have a really regular name, Ray right?

R-A-Y, it’s very common, it’s very easy, it’s very short, nobody should get it wrong

But sometimes when I introduce myself in English, I be like, “Hi, I’m Ray."

and people would go, “Did you say Rain? Like 雨?"

Just because you have a weird name doesn’t mean I have to have a weird name, okay?

My name is Ray, R-A-Y, not any other words that’s not supposed to be a name

But it’s understandable, right? Ray and rain, it kinda sounds similar

but other times I be like, “Hi, I’m Ray.”, and they be like

“Rebecca?”

No, I’m just kidding, doesn’t happen

Another thing I can’t stand is people having my exact name

I remember in middle school there was this senior who was also called Ray

he was way more attractive and muscular than me

and he was taking all the attention and credit and glory away from my name

After a while I got so upset that I downright changed my name into X-ray

I know, it’s a little bit weird. (It’s very weird!) But, but it’s completely justified, right?!

There was dude stealing my name, I had to adapt!

So the name X-ray stuck with me from middle school to college

so all of my friends back in those days would still remember me as X-ray

After I graduated from college, however, I got into a master’s program, and as a MA student

as you all know, we have to write a thesis, and on the cover, you have to put what?

Your name

And it was at that moment when I had to put X-ray on the cover of my thesis

did I realize how incredibly stupid the name was

So, it was then when I dropped the X and became just Ray

But enough about me. What is your English name? How did you get it?

What do you think of Taiwanese people having English names in general?

Do you have a weird name? Do you think my name is weird?

Leave it down in the comment (section) below, I’m curious

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And that is a wrap, thank you guys for watching as always, and I’ll catch you guys next time! See ya!