How do you recognize and remember names from other cultures? In Singapore the majority are Chinese. They learn English and Chinese (Mandarin) at school. A Toastmasters club in Singapore is likely to have several members who speak Mandarin or another Chinese or Asian language as a mother tongue. The names are varied and often have meanings.
Look up your new friends' or colleagues' names in Wikipedia and you will find the culture or religion or nationality or language of the name, its meaning and spelling. You also see lists of famous people with the same name.
CHINESE (In China, Singapore)
The word Chinese refers to the race and the language. Chinese is used to refer to Mandarin and traditional Chinese sign writing used in China. Like America, which simplified spelling, which was done by publisher Webster who produced the Websters' dictionary, the big continent of China simplified the language for the benefit of the numous minorities. Taiwan, uses traditional sign writing.
Surnames:
In Chinese and many Asian languages, surnames come first, as in the name of the revered founding father, and prime minister, Lee Kwan Yew.
If you look at the Chinese writing of the name Lee, the top sign is tree, which has a trunk, branches extending like arms, or a cross, and two legs or roots diagonally, a bit like a banyan tree.
Look up the 100 top Chinese names in Wikipedia and you will be astonished to find that one sign can be translated into half a dozen different well-known surnames.
Another itneresting point is that the name Li translates into Japanese as Ri. The Japanese cannot pronounce Li, which is not in their language.
Lee - plum tree
Li (surname 李) - Wikipedia
Lee Kuan Yew - Singapore
KOREAN
Kim, Lee and Park are the most common surnames.
Kim
Ko, or Go, came to be part of the country's name, Korea
Lee
Park
Flag of Russia
RUSSIAN
Alexi
Ivan - God is gracious, from Hebrew via Greek
Wikipedia says: (Cyrillic: Иван or Іван) is a Slavic male given name, a variant of the Greek name Iōánnēs (English: John) from Hebrew יוֹחָנָן Yôḥānnān meaning 'God is gracious'. It is worldwide associated with Russia and its culture and is very popular in that country. The most popular name bearer of the name is the Russian knyaz and tsar Ivan the Fearsome.
It is also popular in Ukraine, Serbia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Belarus, North Macedonia, and Montenegro and has also become more popular in Romance-speaking countries since the 20th century.
Viktor - victor
Vladimir
Wikipedia says:
Meaning. "of great power" (folk etymology: "ruler of the world", "ruler of peace") / "famous power", "bright and famous".
Yuri
VIETNAMESE
tan - new
Useful Websites
https://translate.google.com/#
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_(name)Polyglots page on Facebook
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. If you are looking for information or entertainment, I have many more posts - and blogs. Please share links with your family, friends and colleagues.
If you want to practise your English, join an English speaking toastmasters club. In the past two years I have been a member of six clubs, two in England, three in Singapore and one online only club which was started in Singapore but moved to late night Singpore, 9 to 11 pm, instead of the more usual meeting time of 7 to 9, so that visitors and members from the UK and USA as well as other countries could join at a more convenient time. You can even attend two meetings on a Friday evening.
(Clubs also exist for other languages, including French, Spanish, Mandarin (Chinese), Tamil (Indian and Sri Lankan). The printed materials are available in several languages.
During Covid-19, the clubs are meeting online.
UK
Harrovians
First and third and fifth Monday evenings every month.
HOD
Singapore:
Braddell Heights Advanced
Meets first Wednesday evening (singapore time) 7 pm to 9.30; and third Saturday afternoon 2 to 5 pm.
Wednesday October 6th 2020, educational workshop by Thomas Chen.
Tampines Changkat Advanced
Humorous speech contest Tuesday October 6th 2020, 7 pm Singapore time.
Tiarel
Online Only
Singapore
Singapore Online Dynamic
Meets Fridays, 9 to 11 pm, Singapore time, which is between about one and two pm in the UK, allowing you time to fill in the registration form, but check whether you are on British summer time, which ends on a weekend in October.
For more information see the Toastmasters International website through which you can send a message, or see Facebook, Linked-In, Meetup and Eventbrite.
Toastmasters International Find A Club
See earlier post What Do The Names Of People You Meet Tell You?
Please share links with your colleagues, family and friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment