A boy named Sue

This week, being our second week with our classes, and second time meeting them, Ed and I decided to give them English nicknames (or rather let them choose). We have some very original names, Selena being the most popular among the girls and Tom among the boys, we did have some interesting choices.

Of course, boys being boys, I also had a lot of Rambo's, James Bond's, David Beckhams ("Teacher, David Beckham very handsome. I handsome too. David Beckham" one stated pointing to himself), and even an X-Man. So if some disaster happens here, I'm protected by the many super heroes that are apparently now learning English in my classroom.

My favorite names picked were Rainbow and Purple. Rainbow and Purple are two very intense looking boys who, with the most amount of pride, chose these two names. All I say is if you want to be a Rainbow or a Purple-go for it.

Although the title suggests that there was also a boy who picked the name Sue, it did not actually happen, yet the girls do love the name (I had many fight over who go to be Sue in my classes). Ed actually had more of the gender bending names than I did.

He has many Jacks, Johns, and Toms. All of these names were chosen by girls with full knowledge that they are indeed boys names. Apparently there is some sort of pride to have a different name, so here if you choose a boy's English name and you are a girl, all the more you stand out. Of course, some of these girls (and boys) are just full on admirers of the people who have their chosen name (Tom Cruise is very handsome, as well as David Beckham, and well Tyra Banks has quite a following with my girls too); so its a good thing to be called after the person who you admire, even if it is the wrong gender name. And even in Korea, sometimes a girl just wants to be a boy (and vice versa).

So the long and the short of it, if you ever had the inclination to name your child something off the wall crazy, but would never actually do it in reality, well now you can. Just give any Korean student a list of crazy names, like the Hulk or Terminator (yes real choices) and they will pick one they like. All you have to tell them is that it is a beautiful sounding name or a name of someone famous in America. So Johnny Cash--a boy named Sue is quite the possibility here. Not because he needed to be tough. But maybe because it is just a beautiful name.