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Hello, I’m Ray! Today we’ll be using English to discuss English names
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Welcome to Ray’s English Corner
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it’s been a while since I’ve done a video completely in English
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but this topic in particular today, I feel like
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it’s meant to be discussed in English and I’m talking about English names
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Now first off, it is already pretty weird that every single person here in Taiwan
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is kind of required to have an English name
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I mean really, every single person that I know in my life has an English name
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What’s most interesting to me is how people got their English names
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So, taking me as an example, I just so happen to have the character 瑞 in my Chinese name
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so I go by the English name, Ray, R-A-Y. Reasonable, right?
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But for most people their names just don’t make any sense, it has nothing to do with their Chinese name
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and some just got randomly assigned a name by their English teacher perhaps?
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And that stuck for the rest of their lives
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Come to think of it this is giving so much power to the English teachers
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If in your classroom you don’t like a particular student
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you can just name him Dick and ruin the rest of his life for him
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As it stands, everyone here has their own English names
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and I actually kind of, personally prefer it this way
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just because of how English names are so much easier to spell out compared to Chinese names
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Don’t know what I’m talking about?
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Well this is usually what goes down when people ask me to write their names for them
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Ray can you sign for me?
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Yeah, sure, what’s your name?
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I-Ting
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Which “I” and which “Ting”?
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(Describes Chinese character by positioning each parts)
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......
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Do you have an English name?
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Oh, oh yeah, Cindy!
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Oh! Cindy! Okay, good, Cindy~
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But sometimes in Taiwan, you meet people with really, really strange English names
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I think everywhere in the world, there’s gonna be weird names
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but in Taiwan we have a particular style of English names weirdness
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So in the States you can be creative and spell a name backwards and create another name off that
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for example Nevaeh is heaven spelled backwards, and that’s pretty cool
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But a problem with that
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you start questioning regular names and start spelling them backwards and they’re ruined
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For example, Natasha is Ah Satan
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And here in Taiwan people can get really creative as well with their English names
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In my past experience dealing with strange, weird English names here in Taiwan
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I usually come across really literal sayings, you know
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things that are not supposed to be names, but they’re used as an English name
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For example, true story here
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I’ve known people who call themselves “Steak”, “Purple”, “Diploma”
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Wait...but why?
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Usually they’ll go something like, “Oh I enjoy steaks, I like the color purple”
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No. No, you don’t. No. Shut up. Go kill yourself. Don’t get that name
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Now, I would like to think that I have a really regular name, Ray right?
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R-A-Y, it’s very common, it’s very easy, it’s very short, nobody should get it wrong
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But sometimes when I introduce myself in English, I be like, “Hi, I’m Ray."
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and people would go, “Did you say Rain? Like 雨?"
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Just because you have a weird name doesn’t mean I have to have a weird name, okay?
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My name is Ray, R-A-Y, not any other words that’s not supposed to be a name
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But it’s understandable, right? Ray and rain, it kinda sounds similar
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but other times I be like, “Hi, I’m Ray.”, and they be like
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“Rebecca?”
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No, I’m just kidding, doesn’t happen
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Another thing I can’t stand is people having my exact name
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I remember in middle school there was this senior who was also called Ray
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he was way more attractive and muscular than me
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and he was taking all the attention and credit and glory away from my name
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After a while I got so upset that I downright changed my name into X-ray
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I know, it’s a little bit weird. (It’s very weird!) But, but it’s completely justified, right?!
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There was dude stealing my name, I had to adapt!
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So the name X-ray stuck with me from middle school to college
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so all of my friends back in those days would still remember me as X-ray
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After I graduated from college, however, I got into a master’s program, and as a MA student
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as you all know, we have to write a thesis, and on the cover, you have to put what?
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Your name
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And it was at that moment when I had to put X-ray on the cover of my thesis
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did I realize how incredibly stupid the name was
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So, it was then when I dropped the X and became just Ray
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But enough about me. What is your English name? How did you get it?
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What do you think of Taiwanese people having English names in general?
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Do you have a weird name? Do you think my name is weird?
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Leave it down in the comment (section) below, I’m curious
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you can find me by typing in 阿滴英文 or Ray Du English
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And that is a wrap, thank you guys for watching as always, and I’ll catch you guys next time! See ya!