As a foreigner here, I would like to share and compare some of my experiences ever since I reached to Singapore.
The very first intercultural situation was my name. My full name is Ye Thu Win. My parents simply call me “son”; my relatives call me “Ye Thu”; most of my Burmese friends call me “Ye Thu Win”. In Myanmar, we do not have family name or first name system. Nobody has to change a name when getting married. A name is just a name. It is that simple. During the orientation camp in my hall, I was introduced my name, and everyone started calling me “Thu Win”. When somebody said “Thu Win” to me the first time, I did not feel like he was calling me, I had some sort of disconcerting feeing. I tried to introduce them as “Ye Thu Win” or “Ye Thu”. But it turned out that “Thu Win” is very easy to remember. Just need to remember “to win”. Since I did not have any preference, “Thu Win” became my given name.
The family name system may become a problem for us when we need fill in a form or buy a plane ticket. In a form, it states that underline your family name. Since I do not have a family name, I only write down my name. Then miscommunication starts to occur! If you buy a plane ticket online, you have to fill in as first name, last name and sometimes it turns out that my name on a plane ticket becomes “Thu Win Ye”. Nowadays it becomes less problem. But sometimes, the officer complains that the name on the passport is different from on the plane ticket. I really wish that there was a third option “No family name system” whenever there is a form.
One of my friends asked me that “How do we maintain family line since we do not have a family name?” How would you think if you were me? Let me know your opinion if you do not have a family name system?
Another common problem for me is acronym. In my opinion, Singaporeans love acronyms. They try to abbreviate most of the words! I have to ask back so many times what a particular acronym stands for. For example “OTOT”, do you know what does it stand for? There are some misunderstanding situations because of acronyms. And so are for sms language. I feel that relatively many acronyms make us less effective to communicate. On the other hand, one of my friends adopts an acronym to his name. His name is “Aung Khant”. Since it is difficult to call, he addresses himself as “a.k”. And people become easy to remember it. This is a good point of acronym.
Well, the post becomes longer than expected, so I stop here though I have some other issues to share.
Have a nice recess week to everyone and be happy, healthy and prosperous in new year!
Wooden Paddle from Central Portugal
1 day ago
I was about to type Thu Win when I paused for a moment. Names can truly give rise to certain adminstration problems such as filling in forms. My professor from Indonesia was telling me about this problem as well. In fact the comments he received were much worse. Apparently someone asked if he did not have a family because he had no family name. It seems something so simple can give rise to even complications like such.
ReplyDeleteThis situation also highlights how it can be so different from place to place. My take is that we should adapt as much as possible to the foreign culture when we are in a foreign country. Like you said a name is just a name, you could have came up with say an English name to make it convenient for others to call you. Or they could call your incomplete name like what you are experiencing now. In army they usually call soldiers by their surname hence I was called "Too" for most part of my army life. I feel that a name should be convenien. So long I can tell that it is calling for me, it is good enough. What good is a name if no one calls it.
Which brings me to a question. Is it always right to adapt? Should the other parties accomodate the foreigner instead?
What an interesting post about names!
ReplyDeleteI have problems with my name too.Apparently, most people thought my name was misspelt or was printed wrongly because of the double 'e's in my name.Also, I don't know why but my surname is "Yang" when the rest of my family members have their surname as "Yeo". It is the same chinese surname but people think that we are not from the same family.
I wonder if there is also any other countries out there which do not have a family name system too. So in Myanmar, does the arrival card also ask you for your first and last name? Then we as Singaporeans might have some trouble entering Myanmar too,right?
hmm..Ye Thu Win, I just realise you spelt my name wrongly under your blog list.lol
ReplyDeleteHi Ye Thu Win! That's interesting, when you first introduced yourself as Thu Win, I thought your family name was Ye. When I first came to Singapore 2 years ago, I was surprised that the Chinese put their family name before their own name. In my culture we have a first name, usually a middle name, and the family name last. My mother has like 4 or 5 names before the family name!
ReplyDeleteUnlike you however, the only trouble I run into with my name is just because of its length. Usually, the space for FULL NAME in forms is just too short haha....
And I know what you mean about the abbreviations! It was insane the way a lot of Singaporeans abbreviated everything! OG = Orientation Group, OGL - Orientation Group Leader, etc etc....it was like they were all always hurrying so they made acronyms for every 2-3 word combinations to save time :D
Hello Ye Thu Win! I really thought your name was Thu Win with your family name Ye.
ReplyDeleteI guess names are really a very good indicator for us to guess where the person came from. For example in Singapore,we go according to the pinyin system which is like spelling your name the way it sounds. However, in Taiwan, names are spelt differently. This is why I have seen many people unable to pronouce some of my friend's name.An example would be the name Hsai Tsiu which would be spelt as Cai Xiu if she was born in Singapore. (:
Soon Yee : I also think the same question “ is it always right to adapt?” I deduce that it depends on the situation. If the atmosphere demands that you have to follow, you should try to follow it. In other situation, the other party also tries to understand and respect a foreigner since it would be difficult to change and adapt suddenly in a foreign land. Since you have no attachment to your name, you won’t encounter any problem. One of my Burmese friends could not bear calling him the last two words of his name.He was even about to quarrel with his friends and later he explained the custom and demanded them not to call his last two words of the name.
ReplyDeleteDeenise : So sorry for spelling wrongly of your name. I changed it. Thanks. About your surname, do you mean that your father surname and your surname is different? “Yang and Yeo” have different pronunciation. I will also think you are not from the same family. The arrival card for foreigner is basically the same is other countries, i.e they have first name and last name square blocks. For Myanmar people, we do not need to care, just write down all words of a name in order. It is understood. No problem for us :D.
Ranmali: Yeah, your full name is long. You also have the same opinion on abbreviations :-). They really love “acronyms”. Haha…
Shihhan : I am surprised that names are spelt differently in Taiwan. Converting to English is not that easy. We have to localize some words. In Burmese, there are also some words where foreigners would pronounce weird sound. For example “Kyaw”, how do you pronounce it? I have experience that a lot of people mispronounced it. I don’t know how to write down correct pronunciation in English. This is one of the Burmese localized words.
Thanks all for sharing your opinion.
Hi Ye Thu Win!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! I also assumed that Ye that is your family name!I learnt something new today! :D I can understand your frustration when it comes to admistration matters and filling up of forms. I am wondering if there is any other countries whose citizen do not have a family name as well?
But thanks for sharing your experiences. Just to share with you, in China, the population is so huge and for example if you are looking for a person called Lee Jie in one organisation, there can be as many as 50 Lee Jies! So which Lee Jie are you referring to? Thus, to solve this problem, some parents decided to be creative and starting create new family names! For example if the father and mother have the surname of Lee and Tan respectively, their child will be called Lee-Tan ______. I think in the near future, there are going to be many many new surnames coming up! Some say that family name gives you a sense of rootedness to your ancestors. But i would like to ask you, coming from Myanmar, do you feel a sense of rootedness to your country/ ancestors even without a family name? Just a question that suddenly popped out from my head!:D
Hi Ye Thu Win, yes, I am also one of those who thought Ye was your family name. Should we continue calling you Thu Win from now on? ;)
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting that a simple thing, such as no family name, would have caused so much trouble for people. I believe both parties should probably give and take.
Like what Soon Yee says, a name is just a name. I have such problems, too, myself. Not with family name, but my own name - ValArie. Many would have mispelt it as ValErie. This is rather obvious when I joined ES2007S, too! Look around and you will notice that many people spelt my name as ValErie. And sad to say, sometimes, even some of my rather-official documents are mispelt.
For me, I don't really mind how they spell my name. However, I will try to correct them if allowed, or possibly, I'd introduce myself as Val. Short and sweet, and won't cause people to call my name wrongly. Some comical incidents that arise from my name would be a temporary teacher in my secondary school calling me ValAria. Now, I have a nickname malaria!!
Yes, Singaporeans DO love to come up with abbreviations. I had to learn so many of them when I came here. Now, I even learn to create one of my own! MCP. Go figure.
Thanks, Ye Thu Win (!), for this very interesting post. Even though I've been to yur country a few times, and I have a couple good Burmese friends, I didn't realize that Burmese don't have family names. Your anecdotes about the problem buying online tickets and immigration officers dealing with your passport really highlight the dark side of the no-family-name system.
ReplyDeleteYou also generate lots of interesting commentary with this post. Much appreciated!
Sorry for late response,
ReplyDeleteVanessa : Thank you for sharing yours. Family name is not a necessary to sense the rootedness of our ancestors. For me, I felt a strong sense before coming to Singapore two and a half year ago. Now, I think I have neutral feeling on it.
Valarie: When I read your abbreviations MCP, what I did was I googled it. Lol . I still can’t figure it out yet. :-)
Brad: Thanks for your comment. I am glad that you appreciated.