The best names you'll ever hear (Jackie)

Interesting fact about Thai culture: Last names are a relatively new requirement (early 1900’s) and the government dictated at that time that every family had to have a different sur name. Imagine only having one Smith family in America! This caused last names to become extravagant and many are actually translated phrases (One Who Does Good Work etc). Because the names (both first and last and multiple middle) are so complicated each Thai person also has a ‘play’ name that they use the majority of the time and even in official documents. Here is a class roster that I received today (official roster from the school records):

Bonnie

Book

Bow

Cha-Cha

Dinosaur

Joy

Junior

Kate

Milk

Mint

Nook

Notm

Oh

Pang

Peat

Pete 2

Ploy

Puenploy

Scene

Tiffy Win

I could not pronounce any of these names in class yesterday. I repeated them over and over and was corrected every time. I felt terrible! Then I got this roster and realized why I was getting them all wrong, I wasn’t expecting a tiny boy with chubby pink cheeks and dimples to be called Dragon, or a little girl with electric blue eye shadow to be named Book.  I laughed hard when I read the roster because none of their names are remotely close to what I was struggling to pronounce in class.* In my defense, in Thai the last syllables of words have a tendency to disappear so even though Milk spells his name M-I-L-K, he actually pronounces it Meel. Martin sounds more like Mard and so on.  It’s great fun to grade their papers though, every class roster brings a fresh fit of laughter.

Notable names from my other classes: French fries, Shampoo, Dragon, Diamond (boy), Dew, Pie, Pink, Pop, Shopper, Nip, Milk, Benz (lots of these), Pig.  The new schedule for next semester starts soon so more to come as the classes change!

Also, my favorite funny student answer on a test today (these are endless)

Q: Name one way in which acid rain can affect the environment

Acceptable answers: The acid can wash minerals like calcium out of the soil and the lack of these minerals hurts trees and other plants. At higher altitudes, acid in clouds weakens trees so much that many mountaintops that were once forested are now barren. Rivers and lakes become more acid, and this affects plants and fish in the water.

A: Make a fish dead

So true, so painfully true.  You may have missed the larger picture but you’re right, acid rain does tend to make a fish dead…somewhere in the world…eventually. but I think it’s worth a point, you cut straight to the chase and made me grin. Definitely worth a point.

All of my M2 and M3 students have left with their skinny red sticks and braided socks on week long Scout field trip, leaving the Mattayom floor exceptionally quiet for a change. Even though over half of my classes have been canceled, I am required to be here all day, every day, without anything extra to do. Today’s boredom was my fault, I should have brought my kindle instead of my laptop, the internet is just too slow here to get anything done.