What's in a name?
This post was inspired by my friend to whom this story happened . It is about names. A student recently told him to call her by their family (last) name instead of her first name as he had been doing. He asked me what I do for my students, and it is a good question.
I prefer to call students by their first name since it is friendlier, but these are mostly kids. As for my Adult students, I rarely even address them by their name and if I do I use their family name plus san as in the Japanese way. In itself it is quite odd.
But it brings up a good point, I have always been bothered by students calling me David先生 since they only use that title with family names in Japan. The confusion comes from their opposite use of names. i.e. Ken Wantanabe would be called Watanabe Ken here. So the usage of first names and last names is utterly confusing to Japanese. At the Junior High School I worked at , the JTE (Japanese English Teacher) made students call me Hartless先生. which was quite nice. Although I don't mind being David sensei, I do hate being referred to as just David in the public schools. It is quite disrespectful, and they would never do that to a Japanese teacher. I know that I might not be "qualified" to be a teacher in a school, but I work hard and I think I deserve that title. I also do not like being called Mr. David as this is just strange!
Another interesting point is why we change the order of Japanese names, I have heard (and I could be wrong so PLEASE tell me if I have this wrong) that we do not switch around names for say Korean and Chinese names. Is this true?
I would also like to note that at the current High School, I know the students but their family names, i.e. Mr. Tanaka, Miss. Suzuki etc. I see no problem with this but they call me just plain David, rarely with the sensei attached. I know they mean no harm but it is not good. Are the ALTs not there to teach about culture as well? Well names are very important. But then respect is lacking for the gaijin(foreigner) in Japan as many of you know.
What do you think? Post your stories.
I prefer to call students by their first name since it is friendlier, but these are mostly kids. As for my Adult students, I rarely even address them by their name and if I do I use their family name plus san as in the Japanese way. In itself it is quite odd.
But it brings up a good point, I have always been bothered by students calling me David先生 since they only use that title with family names in Japan. The confusion comes from their opposite use of names. i.e. Ken Wantanabe would be called Watanabe Ken here. So the usage of first names and last names is utterly confusing to Japanese. At the Junior High School I worked at , the JTE (Japanese English Teacher) made students call me Hartless先生. which was quite nice. Although I don't mind being David sensei, I do hate being referred to as just David in the public schools. It is quite disrespectful, and they would never do that to a Japanese teacher. I know that I might not be "qualified" to be a teacher in a school, but I work hard and I think I deserve that title. I also do not like being called Mr. David as this is just strange!
Another interesting point is why we change the order of Japanese names, I have heard (and I could be wrong so PLEASE tell me if I have this wrong) that we do not switch around names for say Korean and Chinese names. Is this true?
I would also like to note that at the current High School, I know the students but their family names, i.e. Mr. Tanaka, Miss. Suzuki etc. I see no problem with this but they call me just plain David, rarely with the sensei attached. I know they mean no harm but it is not good. Are the ALTs not there to teach about culture as well? Well names are very important. But then respect is lacking for the gaijin(foreigner) in Japan as many of you know.
What do you think? Post your stories.
posted by Floyd at
7:37 AM
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