Using students’ personal names in class

[Arlo_]

I am just about to start teaching English in China, at a university.

I have read that Chinese people often use personal names only with family members and close friends. Therefore I am wondering whether it is the convention to use these names when addressing students in Chinese classes.

I have also read that students (and others) sometimes adopt English names, but I would rather use Chinese names if that is likely to be acceptable to the students, because it seems more respectful.

Any advice would be appreciated.

For background, I am an experienced UK teacher with a recently obtained CELTA.

[Hofmann]

In my experience, most teachers address students by their given name. If they have a 字, that is used.

[feihong]

Since you are an English teacher, you shouldn't address them by their Chinese names in class. They will all have chosen English names by the time you see them (at least a certain percentage of which will be totally outlandish).

[Meng Lelan]

In Chinese schools at all levels, the teacher calls students by their full names. For example when I was a student, the teachers called me Meng Lelan, not simply Lelan.

In an English class in a Chinese school, it might be more convenient for you to use their English names in class because when you do oral drills, exercises, and discussions, it sounds more consistent with the English language with using others' English names.

[abcdefg]

You might have a look at this article for a slightly different point of view on the subject, as well as for the author's opinion the importance of how to address one's Chinese colleagues. Scan down to the section titled "What's in a Name?"

My link

[Chinadoog]

Since you're teaching at a university, you'll probably have several hundred students who you see for 45 minutes a week. I wouldn't even worry about learning their names.

Some of my Chinese colleagues never even learned their students names. They just address them by their student numbers.

[Arlo_]

I’m told I will have 3 classes of 20 first year students and 2 classes of 30 third years, so I’m definitely hoping I will be able to learn their names.

[feihong]

I feel it's so much more professional when a teacher makes the effort to learn every student's name. And with only 50 students, that shouldn't be hard.

[Chinadoog]

So are you teaching English majors? Oral English? I'm curious...

[roddy]

To be honest it would be odd for you to use anything other than their English names - you're the foreign teacher, it's their English class, they'll expect to get to call themselves Candyflower and iBoy. And unless you actually speak Chinese already, you'll mangle the pronunciation of their Chinese names and confuse things. Do make sure you've got a list of both sets of names so you can talk about them with their Chinese teachers (who might not know their English names).

[Arlo_]

Thank you all for your information and suggestions. That is really helpful. I am a lowish-intermediate level Chinese learner, so I would hope to be able to take a shot at pronouncing students’ Chinese names, but I take the point about them expecting me to use their English names.

Thanks for posting the link to the Middle Kingdom Life page. To me, it seems a bit high-handed to ‘refuse to address… …students, by their "English" names if in fact they are not genuine Western names’. After all, they are the names the students have chosen. However I can see the sense in finding a tactful way to point out how such names might be received in the West.

By the way, when I said I will have 3 classes of 20 first year students and 2 classes of 30 third years, I meant 3x20 plus 2x30 students (British English use of the word ‘class’). I will be teaching Oral English, English Writing and Business English to students who are learning to teach Chinese as a foreign language.

I’m not going to say where, just in case someone posts that they worked there last year and it was terrible! With Z visa in hand and suitcase packed, I don’t want to hear that kind of news just now. Once I'm sure things are working out, I'll post the location.

Thanks again.

[feihong]

John of Sinosplice has some good arguments in favor of being a Name Nazi:

http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2004/05/22/the-name-nazi-defied

[kdavid]

One key factor involved in successful second language acquisition is learning to think in English. Thinking in English cuts down reaction time and makes students more natural speakers. In order to learn to think in English, students need to be "immersed" in the language for at least 15 minutes so that they "switch into English mode". As soon as L1 (in this case, Chinese) is spoken, the 15 minutes resets.

So, if you're having a great conversation in English, but use a student's Chinese name, then the students are not fully immersed, which means it would be very difficult for them to learn to think in English in your class. Your class may be the students' only opportunity to speak with a foreign teacher and practice their oral English.

Also, though you might have great Chinese, most foreigners your students speak to will not, and as a result if they do not have an English name, their Chinese name is likely to be butchered.

You would be doing these students a disservice by not requiring them to choose an English name to use in class.

I strongly recommend you ask for their English names, and if they do not have one, require that they choose one. If they absolutely refuse, you can address that student privately, but in my five years of teaching I've yet to meet a student who has refused an English name, though I have heard of it happening.

[yonglin]

Re kdavid's post, I live in an English-speaking part of Canada with a largish Chinese minority. A large number of Chinese people who have lived here for quite a while go by their pinyinified Chinese names in their everyday life. This is entirely normal. Indian people don't pick special English names, either. Japanese people certainly don't. Korean people very rarely do. Actually, picking a special English name seems to be something that only Chinese people do. (Thai people do this sometimes too, but I think it's kind of related to the general Thai nickname tradition.)

Generally, there is a tendency for Chinese people with names more likely to be butchered by English speakers (e.g., involving c, q, x) to choose English names. People called things like "Yang", "Gang", "Li" or "Lei" frequently do not pick "real" English names.

[feihong]

@yonglin: If the Chinese person is living in Canada, I don't think it's a big deal what name they choose to go by. They are immersed in an English-speaking environment, they will learn a ton of English regardless of their name.

However, ESL learners in China should still choose a "real" English name. This is because if they use the romanized version of their own name, they will have a hard time remembering to pronounce their name English-style (i.e. without tones). So, whenever they or someone else say the name during an English conversation, they run the risk of briefly switching into Chinese mode.

[Jane_PA]

Lelan said is true.

In China, I never had a teacher called my Chinese given name only, but always Family name + Given name together. Even my good friends, always called me this way too. This is also quite nature.

But within my family, they all call me a nick name.

In China, only one time I heard a teacher in my high school called his students by given name only, which is a rare case and that was also the reason why a teacher not for my class was mentioned to me by my friends. Some of my friends told me this way, Jane, do you know Teacher Wang for Class four, he always calls his students by given names, hahahaha.

However, when I entered into a college and we had an American lady to teach us spoken English. We selected our English names and she called us by English names. We all felt normal about this too.

[roddy]

I kind of agree that Chinese names might pull people out of 'immersion', but to be honest I suspect the greater problem will be that they're constantly talking Chinese to each other anyway, not to mention reading campus romances under the desk and texting their friends next door, all in Chinese. Given that, I'd let anyone who doesn't really want an English name keep the Chinese one.

[Iqbar]

Arlo_

I worried about coming across as disrespectful using English names to begin with - how poor are our foreign tongues that Chinese students need to give themselves an extra name?! But none of the students found it at all offensive, and after a while I asked them to give me a Chinese name (since I was fed up of being called 'Clis' by people I met in bars etc.) which I think also helped them to bond with me somewhat. It can be hard not to laugh at a student who's called herself "Juicy" though... (or 'Oxford', 'Lancelot' and 'Vivid')

[Lu]

Ai, the intricacies of English names: Arthur is fine, but Lancelot is funny, although Lance is fine. Washington, Paris and London are okay, but Oxford is not. You can be called Chastity while being juicy, but you shouldn't be called Juicy, no matter how chaste you are.

[mr.stinky]

in high school and college, i studied german, spanish, french, chinese.

instructor always had us choose a name in the local tongue.

it's part of studying a foreign language.

why should english be any different?